At their meeting later this month the Governing Body (GB) of the Church in Wales (HT LNYD blog here) will discuss Assisted Dying and the Archbishop's current hobbyhorse, Same-sex Marriage - or the assisted killing of the Church in Wales as she has been handed down.
Mimicking the previous ruse used for admitting women to the Episcopate, cosy chats are being organised to discuss the blatantly loaded scenario:
"A couple of the same sex come to worship in your parish. After a period of attendance, and enthusiastic participation in church life, they enquire if their relationship can be blessed. How can the Church in Wales respond to same sex couples – theologically and pastorally?"The Archbishop should know better than most how many gay couples are already in his Church with his blessing and have been worshiping without impediment for many years.
Why is it that Archbishop Barry does not know how to respond ? Perhaps Archbishop Dolan's (Archbishop of New York) thoughts will help him? viz :
ReplyDelete"It's not something that's just a religious, sacramental concern," Dolan said. "It's also the building block of society and culture. So it belongs to culture. And if we water down that sacred meaning of marriage in any way, I worry that not only the church would suffer, I worry that culture and society would ."
As far as theological and pastoral approach is concerned ,then Anglicanus commented well on this in the last blog.
Should not ++ Barry be teaching us about our Faith ,rather than having another attempt to conjure up a democratic response,and another muddle as is occurring with regard to women Bishops!
The theological response would be to let your no be NO. The pastoral response would be to lead them to the why the theological response is what it is through the scriptural passages and our Lord's teachings.
ReplyDeleteDon't expect any of that from table discussions.
The Church in Wales does not need any assistance - it is committing suicide very effectively already with the fine leadership it has assembled under the magisterial guidance of its Dear leader.
ReplyDelete