Posted on 04/28/2005 6:06:18 AM PDT by NYer
Bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada agreed not to encourage same-sex union blessings but fell short of placing a moratorium on such ceremonies. The House of Bishops also sidestepped a request that the church voluntarily withdraw from a key international Anglican meeting because of the same-sex marriage blessing issue.
The Anglican Church of Canada, alongside its US counterpart, was asked to refrain from attending the Anglican Consultative Council in 2005 by churches worldwide. The U.S. Church decided to abide by the request last month but the Canadian church had not yet responded.
During the House of Bishops' meeting in Windsor, Ontario, the Canadian bishops pushed asside the decision on gay marriage blessings to the General Synod - the church's highest decision-making body, which meets in 2007. The bishops committed themslves "neither to encourage nor to initiate the use of such rites until (the) General Synod has made a decision on the matter."
Ultimately in the time being, the same-sex marriage blessings within the Canadian Episcopal Church will continue.
"As of now, the rites are continuing. There's no change indicated," Neale Adams, spokesman for the Ottowa diocese, told Reuters.
Ping!
Another reason why the liberal Anglicans, Presbyterians and Methodists are dying faiths in their own countries and why their proselytes in Third World Nations correctly view them as heretical and depraved.
Not condemning sin is the same as condoning it.
It appears that the left has now succeeded in creating a schism within the Anglican Communion and has divided the Americans and now Canadians from the rest of the church. And I agree that many Anglicans will be drawn to Catholicism (and probably to Lutheranism and Presbyterianism as well). However, I think all of this is secondary to the real issue at hand.
The left knows that for their agenda to succeed, Christianity must be destroyed in America and Europe (and they have largely succeeded in Europe). And the left views Catholicism as the lynchpin to destroying Christianity. From the left's viewpoint, the Anglicans are the most similar to Catholics in terms of teachings and diocesan structure, the only real differences is that the Anglican Communion in America is much smaller than the Catholic Church and they allow married clergy. I believe that the left launched their attack on the Anglicans as sort of a "test run" for their broader attack on Catholicism. They already realize that there is a widespread movement among liberal American Catholics to allow priests to marry. IMHO, the only thing that can save not only Catholicism but Christianity in America, is for the Holy Father to take a very firm approach with American bishops and make it clear that there is no room for reform on critical issues.
I completely agree. It's time for some house cleaning.
Ping to self for later pingout.
Yet they endlessly chastise the Catholic church for it's mistakes in getting tricked into letting gay priests I.e. paedophiles into it's church. So which is it? The logic here is headspinning. I.e. They bash the Catholics for a mistake regarding letting homos infiltrate, yet they now want to willingly allow gay priests and gay marriage. They're just asking for it.
I have a question. Lets say the U.S. Supreme Court says that marriage between a man and a women infringes on same sex couples blah blah blah...Would the Catholic Church have grounds to refuse saying that this is the government telling a religion what to believe? What would happen?
That would only affect civil law. Churches can marry whomever they wish, and each has their standards. A church could recognize gay "marriages" if it wanted to -- but they wouldn't have the force of law as far as the govt is concerned.
While it is true that the "Diocean structure" of the Episcopal church is somewhat similiar to the RC's, it pretty much stops there. Our Bishops are elected by their Dioceses with half the vote going to the clergy and the other half going to the Laity who are elected by their home churches to be delegates. Additionally, each church is free to call its own Pastor and pays him within their own budgets which are set by an elected Vestry and approved by the congregation in an annual business meeting.
In other words, the laity in the Episcopal church have a much greater say in the running of their individual congregations and the church in general than the RC's who have very little if any say in their church operation.
My post #12 should not be considered in any was a defense of the Apostacy going on in the Episcopal Church at this time. In fact, I think it's disgraceful!
The key phrase being "from the left's viewpoint", as far as they are concerned, anyone who pays anything other than lip service to Christianity is a crazed lunatic.
Nevertheless, of all major denominations in America, Anglicanism most closely resembles Catholicism.
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