More UK Cathedrals Targeted for Luther-Style Protest....Over Gay Relationships

A campaign targeting cathedrals around the UK is spreading off the back of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

A list of 'declarations' – reminiscent of Martin Luther's 95 theses – is being pinned to cathedral doors by a group of priests in protest at what they see as the Church of England's increasingly liberal approach to same-sex relationships.

London's St Paul's Cathedral and Southwark Cathedral were the first to have the Southwark Declaration, a list of affirmations promoting conservative Anglican theology, attached to their doors on Tuesday night.

Then on Wednesday night Rochester Cathedral and Hereford Cathedral were also targeted in what is becoming a nationwide campaign.

It follows on from the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation on Tuesday which marked the day Luther, then an Augustinian monk, allegedly nailed his 95 Theses, or criticisms of the Church, to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral in Germany.

Christian Today understands the campaigners are deliberately focusing on cathedrals which they perceive to have a liberal slant. Hereford Diocese last week passed a motion calling for official liturgy to bless gay couples and forcing the Church of England to publicly debate the decision. Rochester Diocese was included because it has hosted LGBT Eucharists and has draped the rainbow flag from its altar.

The Southwark Declaration...

As clergy and lay people in the Diocese of Southwark:

We affirm the divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures and their supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct. We affirm with Canon A5 that ‘the doctrine of the Church of England is grounded in the Holy Scriptures, and in such teachings of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Church as are agreeable to the said Scriptures.’’

We affirm, with Article XX, that ‘it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God’s Word written.’

We affirm the teaching of Scripture (Genesis 2.24, Mark 10. 7, Matthew 19.5), the Book of Common Prayer, and Canon B30 (‘Of Holy Matrimony’) that marriage is the union of one man and one woman for life. We affirm it is the one God-ordained context for sexual intercourse. We affirm resolution 1.10 on human sexuality of the Lambeth Conference (1998).

We call upon all the Bishops, Archdeacons, and the senior staff of the Diocese, alongside all clergy and licensed lay ministers, to affirm these truths, live by them, and to teach in accordance with them.

We call upon the Bishops to appoint to positions of teaching authority only those who hold to these truths in good conscience.

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