Not all church-goers want to ban gay marriages.

[reynardo]

At least one major figure in the Anglican (Episcopalian) church in Australia supports them.

Heterosexual Christians such as me, who support gay people and long to see their God-given humanity honoured in the church instead of reviled, are increasingly low profile. Frankly, we feel bullied.

OK, I have to declare a vested interest here. The author, Muriel Porter, has long been a fighter for the ordination of women in the Anglican Church. She is also my cousin.

And I have to agree with her completely about the "being bullied" part. It was, and still is, the rare church who would allow an openly gay couple to attend. If they did, they had to pretend they were "housemates" or "co-workers", as a dear friend of mine had to at his local Catholic Church.

The two other divisive issues in Anglicanism - divorce and female clergy - did not stack up as the line in the sand they needed. Too many divorced people in church, let alone the community, and too many women.

Not necessarily true, as female clergy are still not recognised in a large section of the Anglicans, and of course by the Catholic Church. But some change has happened. Slowly. Bit by bit.

Maybe that's what we need now - small changes, leading to the larger ones. And therein lies the problem.

How many Anglican archbishops does it take to change a light bulb?

CHANGE?????????

Comments

[mr-figgy.livejournal.com]

Would you like large numbers of progressive people to convert to these religions, as a form of culture jamming if not a way to force the issues?

[rorted.livejournal.com]

Why? Do you know large numbers of progressive people we could use?

[mr-figgy.livejournal.com]

Nope. Just a hypothetical, unfortunately.

Not being one to brag...

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

... but the Melbourne Unitarian Church has been supporting same-sex marriages since the issue raised its head...

And we ordinated the first woman in what was then called the British Empire way back in the 1870s.

[saluqi.livejournal.com]

Wow, Muriel Porter is your cousin? I'm impressed :)

[fraudirector.livejournal.com]

Certainly the female presiding bishop in the US isn't going to be able to pull it off, since her powers have been curtailed so the conservative nut jobs can have a bishop they are willing to report to.

I'm in a diocese which also has a female bishop, I believe one of the first in the US at the time. So I don't see this problem so much, but the whole gay marriage things is just off the charts.

What ever happen to the Anglican church being a church of common worship. It was founded (in a very simplistic view) to stop the wars over doctrine and disagreement in beliefs in England and develop an agreement to worship together using a single serve and not necessarily get hung up on an individuals beliefs.