Posted on 06/23/2005 6:28:38 PM PDT by wagglebee
A senior Church of Ireland cleric has expressed alarm that same-sex marriages could be introduced in Northern Ireland by the end of the year.
Bishop Harold Miller told the Down and Dromore Synod in Moira parish hall yesterday that the Government appeared intent on imposing on Northern Ireland civil partnerships for gay and lesbian couples by December.
"These issues will continue to run, not only in the Church, but in the province, as the Government seems determined to introduce a form of civil partnership into Northern Ireland, beginning, so far as I can see, in December," he said.
"These will mimic marriage for same-sex couples and were, as I understand it, not the way forward desired by the Churches in Northern Ireland in their responses to the consultation document.
"One of our difficulties, of course, is our lack of an Assembly which can speak for the province, but I would wish to register my own concern about the direction which is being imposed on our province."
On December 21, a priest in Brighton will marry her lesbian partner in Britain's first official same-sex marriage.
The Rev Debbie Gaston, of the Metropolitan community church and her partner, Elaine Cook, will wed in a civic ceremony at Brighton town hall along with two other same-sex couples under the new Civil Partnership Act which comes into force on December 5.
Dr Miller also expressed concern about the divisions within the worldwide Anglican Church over the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of gay bishops.
In February, at a meeting in Newry, Church leaders from around the world called on their US and Canadian counterparts to voluntarily withdraw from the Anglican Consultative Council until 2008 because of their stance on homosexuality.
The row was triggered by the ordination of gay Bishop Gene Robinson in the US.
Dr Miller said the dispute was straining relationships within the worldwide Church such as the links forged between Down and Dromore, the Episcopalian Church in Albany in the US, as well as several dioceses around the world.
He said it was a great relief that Down and Dromore endorsed the official Church position established at the Lambeth conference.
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AS if the Northern Irish don't have enough problems!
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