Posted on 01/28/2006 10:54:36 PM PST by SmithL
The Episcopal Diocese of Washington voted yesterday to approve same-sex blessing ceremonies at its annual convention at the Washington National Cathedral, while the Diocese of Virginia, meeting in Richmond, passed an omnibus resolution that touted unity.
The Washington diocese has unofficially allowed same-sex ceremonies for years, and it has had a same-sex rite on the books since June 2004.
However, that rite has been put on hold until a meeting of the Episcopal General Convention in June in Ohio, when the denomination's future stance on homosexual clergy and same-sex blessings will be decided.
The Virginia diocese's resolution, passed in the closing minutes of its annual council at the Richmond Marriott, promised to "seek the highest degree of communion possible" with Christians with whom it disagrees.
The diocese's 90,000 members, it said, "would make every effort to cooperate as co-laborers within the Anglican Communion," the 70-million-member body to which the Episcopal Church belongs.
A majority of the world's Anglican bishops have partially or completely sundered ties with the Episcopal Church over its 2003 consecration of openly homosexual New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson. However, the resolution only generally referred to the controversy and biblical authority that has beset the denomination.
Attempts to get the Virginia diocese to take a stand on such issues fell flat. One amendment specifying marriage is "between one man and one woman" failed 169-274.
Virginia Episcopal Bishop Peter J. Lee, who was praised in the resolution as an example of "grace and civility in the midst of disagreement," said his flock wants it that way.
(Excerpt) Read more at insider.washingtontimes.com ...
I am so glad I am Orthodox.
Later this week the diocese will approve blessings for dildoes and bondage whips. On Thursday the diocese is expected to approve a new liturgical rite for a fetus who is about to be aborted (only at the request of the mother). Diocesean leaders plan to charge very high fees for these liturgies and are making these moves, in the words of one cleric, "to ensure our financial viability as a diocese." Leaders expect the current membership rolls to double over the next year, rising to 278 members from the current 141. This would taper off over the next few decades as the largely childless membership grows older.
FYI..and aren't you so glad you're back....(g)
hahahah, very very funny. (ex-Episckies here).
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