Posted on 07/11/2009 9:28:09 AM PDT by Steelfish
Church of England under pressure to accept gay marriage
By STEVE DOUGHTY 11th July 2009
The Fellowship Of Confessing Anglicans, a coalition of clergy and lay people, are unhappy with the liberal agenda of some churches
The Church of England warned last night that it is under pressure to accept gay marriage.
But two senior bishops - writing on behalf of the CofE - said it is not prepared to abandon its traditional teachings in favour of the idea of 'gender neutral' marriage.
They said that the Church of England considers 'it is vital for the Church to maintain a critical distance from the state and to resist what the state is doing if this is at odds with Scripture.'
The fears over same sex marriage were made public at a meeting of the Church's parliament, the General Synod.
They come at a time of high tension between Labour ministers and leading churches over gay rights and equality laws
The concerns were raised in a letter from Bishop of Guildford Dr Christopher Hill and Bishop of Chichester Dr John Hinds to leaders of the Swedish state church which has close and formal links with the Anglicans.
The bishops - writing on behalf of the CofE - said they could not accept beliefs 'in which the idea of a fundamental distinction between the genders is seen as irrelevant and in which marriage is therefore seen as something that can and should be gender neutral.'
Their letter was a response to moves in the Church of Sweden to offer gender neutral marriage services which could be used for either brides and grooms or for same sex couples.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Even the guys on the right side are pusillanimous. People don't have genders. People have sexes. There are two of them--male and female. It takes one of each to get married. What's so damn hard about that.
What do the Swedes think the church is -- a grocery store? "Let's offer a new and improved marriage service!" /sarc
Everybody’s under pressure to accept “Gay Marriage”.
Just say, NO!
Just because the spoiled brat is crying for candy doesn’t mean you give-in.
In fact, there should rather be an unpleasant consequence to discourage such behavior next time.
Like American Episcopalianism, the C of E is a dying institution. Many churches in England and Scotland are now so deserted that some of them have been sold to Islamic Centers for conversion into mosques.
how many gay “marriages” will be performed in mosques?
I don’t think her Maj is very happy about this, it undermines the Throne.
How to be an un-church, 1 easy lesson.
Ghosts of Henry VIII ?
Maybe this time when morality is thrown to the wind they won’t sack the monestaries and burn the libraries.
Well said!
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