Posted on 11/29/2009 9:48:43 PM PST by Fractal Trader
Five years after same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts, the local Episcopal bishop yesterday gave permission for priests in Eastern Massachusetts to officiate at same-sex weddings.
The decision by Bishop M. Thomas Shaw III was immediately welcomed by advocates of gay rights in the Episcopal Church, who have chafed at local rules that allowed priests to bless same-sex couples, but not sign the documents that would solemnize their marriages.
The decision is likely to exacerbate tensions in the Episcopal Church and the global denomination to which it belongs, the Anglican Communion, which has faced significant division in the wake of the election of an openly gay priest as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.
“The time has come,’’ Shaw said in a telephone interview. “It’s time for us to offer to gay and lesbian people the same sacrament of fidelity that we offer to the heterosexual world.’’
Shaw, a longtime supporter of gay rights and same-sex marriage, had previously cited the Episcopal Church’s canons and prayer book in barring local priests from officiating at same-sex marriages, even after such unions became legal in Massachusetts in 2004.
But this month, clergy and laypeople at a diocesan convention endorsed a resolution expressing hope that Shaw would allow clergy to sign marriage licenses for same-sex couples. They cited legislation approved at the Episcopal Church’s general convention last summer declaring that “bishops, particularly those in dioceses within civil jurisdictions where same- gender marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships are legal, may provide generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this Church.’’
Shaw said his diocese includes “a significant number of gay and lesbian clergy who are in partnerships,’’ and that “many of our parishes have significant numbers of gay and lesbian people.’’
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
ping
What is a “sacrament of fidelity”?
I watched with sadness as the great and beautiful ECUSA
started down the toilet 25 years ago.
It is now in the sewer.
Sadly, you’re right about the Episcipal Church.
Just like the Church of England, Lutheranism and Episcopalianism have by trying to be relevant to the liberal cultural and secular mores of our times have indeed rendered themselves utterly irrelevant and worthless.
I don’t go to night clubs that play gospel music and I don’t go to churches that condone gay marriage. It just don’t seem compatible.
It must be a terribly tough job, being an Episcopal bishop. Whenever some thorny issue comes up, you have to decide how many weeks, months, very occasionally even years, you need to wait before capitulating.
Don’t play chess with an Episcopalian, they can’t tell a bishop from a queen.
> What is a “sacrament of fidelity”?
(boggled...) Parsing the phrase with the aid of a dictionary isn’t much help. Theoretically, by definition any religious observance is a “sacrament of fidelity”, otherwise it is a waste of time.
Can’t tell what they mean by its use here. So they mean “Fidelity” as in “faithfulness between gay partners?” There’s nothing sacred about that.
Sadly, these Anglicans are just continuing their slide toward irrelevance.
The time has come? Why is that? Does doctrine decay with time? Or has the good bishop recieved another revelation from God on the matter? He doesnt say so.
Hear that phone? It’s Roman calling.
Only one partner per night.
It’s called “making it up as you go along” - something that liberal denominations are experts at.
How dare this vile man call it a “sacrament”.
This “Bishop” is given plenty of press time and headlines, just like the Catholic Nuns who decide to ordain themselves priests or the occassional priest who “breaks away” to start his own Church.
In fact, these people are irrelevant and represent nothing. They wouldn’t exist if not for the media. I would bet the good Bishop doesn’t even have 30 members in his pews on Sunday.
something that is not the churches’ to give away
An impossibility given the life-style.
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