Posted on 05/29/2005 2:48:28 PM PDT by Tantumergo
HOMOSEXUAL priests in the Church of England will be allowed to “marry” their boyfriends under a proposal drawn up by senior bishops, led by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The decision ensures that gay and lesbian clergy who wish to register relationships under the new “civil partnerships” law — giving them many of the tax and inheritance advantages of married couples — will not lose their licences to be priests.
They will, however, have to give an assurance to their diocesan bishop that they will abstain from sex. The bishops are trying to uphold the church doctrine of forbidding clergy from sex except in a full marriage. They accept, however, that the new law leaves them little choice but to accept the right of gay clergy to have civil partners.
The decision is likely to reopen the row over homosexuality that has split the worldwide Anglican communion. It may also overshadow an international meeting of senior bishops next month designed to heal rifts between liberals and conservatives over the issue.
The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement estimates that within five years 1,500 homosexual Anglican clergy will have registered under the new law, which comes into force on December 5.
The Church of England proposal is contained in a draft Pastoral Statement on Civil Partnerships, drawn up by Graham James, the Bishop of Norwich. It was discussed at length and provisionally agreed at a meeting last week at a hotel in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire.
A final draft with some amendments will be produced for approval by the House of Bishops, the upper house of the church’s General Synod.
Under the proposal, a priest intending to register a civil partnership would inform his or her bishop in a face-to-face meeting. The priest would then give an undertaking to uphold the teaching of the Church of England, outlined in the 1991 document Issues in Human Sexuality. This paper prohibits sex for gay clergy.
Although no sanctions are included in the new proposal, it is expected that a breach of the rules may lead to disciplinary action or the possible suspension of clergy.
Some bishops, however, are uncomfortable about subjecting their priests to the proposed interviews.
One said this weekend: “We all have clergy in gay partnerships in our dioceses and there is a genuine reluctance on the part of a number of us to make their lives more difficult.”
Some clergy in other churches have already made their intentions public. Last week, it emerged that Debbie Gaston, a lesbian minister from Brighton, and Elaine Cook, her girlfriend of 16 years, intend to register a civil partnership. The couple, originally Baptists, now belong to the Metropolitan Community Church, whose members are largely gay and transsexual.
The bishops have also agreed to a government request to change ecclesiastical law to favour civil partners. A change to the Pluralities Act of 1838, for example, will enable gay partners to occupy vicarages for up to two months after the death of a priest.
The Anglican Consultative Council is meeting in Nottingham on June 21 to try to heal the rift caused by the American church’s decision in 2003 to ordain the openly gay Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. It led 22 Anglican provinces, mainly in Africa and Asia, to break off relations with the American church.
The most entrenched conservatives include Peter Akinola, Primate of Nigeria, who has called homosexuality an “aberration unknown even in animal relationships”.
Williams, who was enthroned as archbishop in 2003, has been dogged by the issue of homosexuality. He withdrew his initial support for the appointment of Jeffrey John, a gay priest, as Bishop of Reading after the furious reaction of conservatives and evangelicals and angered gay rights activists.
ping
Any religion that can have a homosexual priest and be okay with that doesn't deserve any followers.
You are right. A proper religion will have homosexual priests in the closet and molest little boys from time to time, and when allegations surface they should be chanelled to safe havens. That would definitely be a proper religion with billions of followers.
Thanks, I'll be a-pinging later today or tonight.
Blechh.
Oh my! Deacon, does England not have Freedom of Religion? Can the State force the Church into this or is this talk of the "civil law" allowing them no choice just bull and cover for them to embrace further apostasy? I'd say this is pretty much the end of the so called Anglican Communion.
Leave it to Rowan the Fuzzy to come up with this typically Anglican hodge-podge of a compromise.
How can he endorse quasi-marriage for homosexual clerics and then expect them to abstain from homosexual relations?
Reminds me of the farmer who said "Yes, the fox may sleep in the hen house, but he must promise not to eat the chickens."
Well, by Bill Clinton rules-nothing that homosexuals do to each other could be classified as sex. Thus,staying celebate is relative.
can anyone say...apostasy!
This is the wild leap onto the slippery slope toward full abomination.
This is the side of the barn in Animal Farm--which will be continually edited by the perverts until they are the ones inside the farmhouse, unless the righteous and God Himself intervenes.
And whether the child molesters of the future are given free passes--or executed--hinges on the UNITED STATES SENATE and the character of new SCOTUS judges in the very near future.
yeah right...too funny and the 'Rats won't fillybuster no more either!
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Speak the truth in love. Eph 4:15
How can he speak with a straight face of gay clergy he knows to be in "committed relationships" right now? Are we supposed to believe they are celibate?
***can anyone say...apostasy!***
A prime example of the Whore of Revelation.
The apostate church in bed with the State.
I think we're seeing the handwriting on the wall. I'm generally not much of an alarmist, but when viewing the groundswell of evil that this event is a part of, I'm really wondering if Christ's return can't be far off.
Why? Is there no freedom of religion in England? Why should the state dictate who can serve in holy orders in a church, even if it is "established"?
I heard that scholars recently discovered that an ancient monk making one of the first copies of the Bible mistakingly left out the "r" in celebrate.
By the way, only about 3% of ordained Roman Catholic priests have been accused of sexual abuses, and less than that have been convicted in civil court or defrocked (University of Pennsylvania, 1999 or 2000, I forget). About 99% of cases involving homosexual offenses did not involve prepubescent boys, but boys and young men in the 15 - to - 17 age range. While still a betrayal, this is not pedophilia, it is homosexual.
In many European states, age 16 is the age of consent. That is not the case here in the U.S., of course, and sex with teenagers is still wrong. But the liberal press has described the issue as priestly pedophilia, when in fact it is better described as priestly homosexuality. The press won't report it as that, of course, since homosexuality is their current issue love child, and when trying to tear down Christianity, one should not besmirch one's love child, eh?
It will be cleaned up in time.
Meanwhile, on the married clergy, Protestant side of the aisle, about 9% of Protestant clergy have been accused of sexual abuses of all kinds (same UP study). Celibacy, in other words, is not the cause and marriage is not a preventative.
That has got to be one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.
Let this be a firm message to anyone who doubts our clear and unambiguous opposition to narcotics.
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