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In GBCS article, UM elder argues against celibacy for single clergy
Methodist Thinker ^ | 6/30/10 | Methodist Thinker

Posted on 07/02/2010 7:42:20 AM PDT by ZGuy

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To: RnMomof7; Irisshlass; informavoracious; larose; RJR_fan; Prospero; Conservative Vermont Vet; ...
RnMomof7 wrote:
Or then can get an "annulment"from the Catholic church ...same thing except the church gets money
Same thing? Nope, it is a recognition that no valid and binding marriage actually existed.

Is there a fee?

The current fee for a formal annulment case is $400.00. Fees for other types of cases may be only $25.00. The annulment fees cover approximately 1/3 of the actual cost per case. The remainder of the Tribunal budget is subsidized by the people of the Diocese through the parish assessments and the annual stewardship campaign.

The Petitioner receives notice of the fee at the beginning of the case. The fee may be paid in installments.

It is important to know that the progress of one's case or the eventual decision of the Tribunal is never affected when someone is unable to pay the fee.


41 posted on 07/03/2010 5:10:53 PM PDT by narses ( 'Prefer nothing to the love of Christ.')
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To: Mad Dawg

What troubles me about it is there is no biblical precedent for men calling what God has joined together as invalid... as if it never occurred.

I know too many cases where it was valid for 25 years and then suddenly called invalid by the church that married them and baptized their children .
The church declares the children are then the product of fornication and illegitimate in the eyes of God.. because He never recognized the marriage

To many of us on the outside looking in it looks like a convenient way to allow divorce by changing its name.So the church can claim “Moral superiority” by saying they do not allow divorce..

Divorce or annulment is a sin, I have a God that is in the forgiving business.. so just like any sin repented , God sees it no more.

Many Protestant pastors will not remarry a divorced person unless the divorce was before they were saved ... others will if the party is clearly repentant..

I hate divorce, I hate annulments but we are a fallen race subject to our fallen nature.. praise God for His mercy


42 posted on 07/03/2010 5:50:25 PM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: P-Marlowe; ZGuy; xzins; RnMomof7; blue-duncan

There is no defending this article and our General Board of Church and Society that enabled its being written and broadcast. They are lapsed into heresy.


43 posted on 07/03/2010 7:23:16 PM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and proud of it. Those who truly support our troops pray for their victory!)
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To: xzins; ZGuy; RnMomof7; blue-duncan
There is no defending this article and our General Board of Church and Society that enabled its being written and broadcast. They are lapsed into heresy.

Time to nail your 95 Theses to the door and wait for the inquisition.

44 posted on 07/03/2010 7:26:33 PM PDT by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: P-Marlowe; blue-duncan

I will keep you informed.

Independence Day

“Let my people go”


45 posted on 07/03/2010 7:27:49 PM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and proud of it. Those who truly support our troops pray for their victory!)
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To: RnMomof7
Well, I only went after part of what you said, the money part.

What troubles me about it is there is no biblical precedent for men calling what God has joined together as invalid... as if it never occurred.

Rightly or wrongly, that's not what the Church thinks it is doing.

The concept of invalidity can't be a problem, can it? If it turns out they're brother and sister, or Oedipus and Jocasta?

Then we go to a marriage contracted fraudulently. He married her for her money only, and was planning on having a serious extracurricular love life once he got his part of the loot. If a person MEANS to perjure himself, can the other party to the deal still be bound? Is there a deal at all? Or what if there's the romantic gleam of the moon off the barrels of her father's shotgun? Is an oath taken under duress binding? or valid?

Then we move to what if one or both of the parties are incompetent. I used to tell the people over whose weddings I presided that if I got one whiff of alcohol, then the wedding was off, until everyone was sober.

As my alleged ministry progressed, I got more and more focussed on explaining the vows, on going over what "for better or for worse," implied, and on, as I said, doing my best to assure that the only way they could get an annulment would be if one of them was committing deliberate fraud.

Yeah I had spiritual advice and suggestions and all, but the main thing was doing my best to clarify just what it was they were promising.

I don't see how anyone can question that there are abuses of annulment. I have no clue how anyone (or IF anyone) thought Teddy Kennedy was competent to commit matrimony. That is, if I were king of the universe I would have no qualms about annulling a Teddy The Hutt marriage. I would have serious qualms about allowing him to pretend to a sacramental marriage. Serious.

But I think the principle makes sense. And few principles are so good that they cannot be abused.

46 posted on 07/03/2010 7:32:03 PM PDT by Mad Dawg ("Be kind to everyone you meet, for every person is fighting a great battle" -- St. Ephraim)
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To: ZGuy
the writer of the is a plant from SIECUS link

and why are the methodists paying attention to a Unitarian?

47 posted on 07/03/2010 8:42:42 PM PDT by LadyDoc (liberals only love politically correct poor people)
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To: xzins

I feel so bad for you Pastor..


48 posted on 07/04/2010 8:12:16 AM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: Mad Dawg

You are a wise man Dawg

....I have no doubt that there are marriages that one party was unaware of the truth of the other.. but they dont last 25 years


49 posted on 07/04/2010 8:14:49 AM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: LadyDoc

They have drifted so far..they may not care


50 posted on 07/04/2010 8:16:18 AM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: RnMomof7
....I have no doubt that there are marriages that one party was unaware of the truth of the other.. but they dont last 25 years

This is a feeble desperate attempt to keep arguing, so let me preface it by saying, yeah. What? Who is kidding whom?

For the feeble defense part, let me try this. As I am fond of saying, "Always remember 100 IQ is average." Then consider, if you, probably being somewhat above 100 IQ, are as clueless and stupid as most of us are most of the time, remember there is somebody out there as much BELOW 100 IQ as you are above it.

NOT that intelligence is ALL that important. But at least some of us, some of the time, try to think HARD about what we're doing. A whole lot of people don't.

So my FIRST reaction is to say to most folks (I actually once lost my patience and yelled at someone who was whining to get out of her marriage -- praise God about 8 years later she and her husband wrote and thanked me, and they had a STRONG spiritual life -- I would think anybody married to me for more than a couple of weeks would need a VERY strong spiritual life, but I digress, did you notice? It's funny how sometimes I lose my train of thought and .....)

ANYWAY I would say, "D00d! You made the promise. It says so right here. 'For better or for worse, etc.' What the !%$#!&*)@#!!! did you THINK it meant? Nowhere does it say - 'but not TOO much worse.'"

Which may explain why some people told my that I was a ha... I mean that the part of my anatomy usually in contact with a chair was somewhat more obdurate than that of others ....

Have a great day! For Freedom Christ has set us free!

51 posted on 07/04/2010 10:15:47 AM PDT by Mad Dawg ("Be kind to everyone you meet, for every person is fighting a great battle" -- St. Ephraim)
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To: Mad Dawg

Actually I THOUGHT I was agreeing with you???

Have a blessed 4th


52 posted on 07/04/2010 10:49:45 AM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: RnMomof7

LOL

It’s like Adlai Stevenson who said we must all go more than halfway to meet one another (and so I always imagined people walking right past each other ....)

Yeah, you were agreeing with moi and I was agreeing with you about the 25 year, um, relationships, that suddenly are declared NOT to have been marriages.

I can imagine it, but it’s hard for me to believe it.


53 posted on 07/04/2010 10:57:25 AM PDT by Mad Dawg ("Be kind to everyone you meet, for every person is fighting a great battle" -- St. Ephraim)
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To: xzins
You may never consider the RCC but, if you do, I will venture the confident guess that I am not the only Catholic here who admires you and who would welcome you.

My mother's best friend was an old-fashioned Methodist, born in 1903. No better Christian has ever crossed my path. She was a pillar of her church. No dancing, caffeine, tobacco, liquor but did not push that on anyone else. No kinder person ever came my way.

Hilda's religious activity was centered on Scripture reading for hours every day. Eventually, Hilda was unable, in the area of New Haven, Connecticut, to attend the UMC churches because the clergy had turned their backs on Scripture and were running a trend of the week club. The last straw was when the Summerfield Methodist Church in New Haven welcomed to its parsonage (as a part time assistant) a New Hampshire communist minister (I would know the name if I heard it) who had just been released from New Hampshire prison after twenty years or more for running a communist training camp. The prosecutor who sent him to jail was then future Congressman Louis Wyman.

In any event, you are in my prayers. I ask the Lord to provide for you whatever He knows is best for you. God bless you and yours.

54 posted on 07/04/2010 2:08:10 PM PDT by BlackElk (Dean of Discipline, Tomas de Torquemada Gentlemen's Club: Burn 'em Bright!!!)
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To: RnMomof7

The children of a marriage annulled by the Roman Catholic Church are regarded as legitimate so long as their parents’ marriage APPEARED to be legitimate at the time it was contracted. Other Catholics will understand this better than I but that IS the Canon Law of Catholicism.


55 posted on 07/04/2010 2:16:59 PM PDT by BlackElk (Dean of Discipline, Tomas de Torquemada Gentlemen's Club: Burn 'em Bright!!!)
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To: BlackElk; blue-duncan; Kolokotronis; RnMomof7; P-Marlowe; Alamo-Girl; betty boop

Thank you for your kind words, BlackElk. There is no church that has more aggressively stood for life than the RCC. It is something that would make any Christian proud, and I would not be embarrassed to be aligned with you.

If I were to draw up a list of places to which I could go, the RCC would be there because of that stand for life that is second to none. I admire your determination to trace your lineage back through the apostles. I admire the dogged determination to organize your witness world-wide in a manner that makes great sense. And I admire your unity of purpose.

There are other denominations on my list: none of them are mainline Protestant churches. They have all gone away from the gospel.

Independent, evangelical, orthodox, bible, and other churches are on my list. They each have some wonderful strengths. None, though, have so consistently stood for life as has yours.


56 posted on 07/04/2010 2:23:58 PM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and proud of it. Those who truly support our troops pray for their victory!)
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To: BlackElk
The children of a marriage annulled by the Roman Catholic Church are regarded as legitimate so long as their parents’ marriage APPEARED to be legitimate at the time it was contracted. Other Catholics will understand this better than I but that IS the Canon Law of Catholicism.

It really does not matter how the church or men see the children, it matters how GOD sees the sex act and the children..when the church says a marriage was never valid in the eyes of God..it means HE never saw them as married..as a result.. every sex act was fornication and every child a bastard.. in Gods eyes..and after all that is the only one that counts in the matter of sin

57 posted on 07/04/2010 2:24:20 PM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: RnMomof7; Irisshlass; informavoracious; larose; RJR_fan; Prospero; Conservative Vermont Vet; ...
RnMomof7 wrote:
It really does not matter how the church or men see the children, it matters how GOD sees the sex act and the children..when the church says a marriage was never valid in the eyes of God..it means HE never saw them as married..as a result.. every sex act was fornication and every child a bastard.. in Gods eyes..and after all that is the only one that counts in the matter of sin
That may be YOUR view, it may be the view of the heretical and apostate sect you adhere to, it certainly is not the view of the One True, Holy and Apostolic Catholic Church. Thank God!
58 posted on 07/04/2010 2:29:29 PM PDT by narses ( 'Prefer nothing to the love of Christ.')
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To: narses
That may be YOUR view, it may be the view of the heretical and apostate sect you adhere to, it certainly is not the view of the One True, Holy and Apostolic Catholic Church. Thank God!

What the church thinks is unimportant only Gods opinion counts..

The church says God did not see that marriage as valid.. He calls sex outside of marriage fornication and the product of that sex bastards.. and He curses bastards..

The church has to live with the fruit of its decision IF annulment is God ordained and IF they speak for God..

Pretty big IFs

59 posted on 07/04/2010 2:55:51 PM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: RnMomof7

yours is the opinion that I quoted, you want to define God. bad idea sister, bad idea.


60 posted on 07/04/2010 3:30:54 PM PDT by narses ( 'Prefer nothing to the love of Christ.')
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