Uncomfortable and unwelcome!

The Archbishop of Wales Dr Barry Morgan has attracted the admiration of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community for his enthusiastic support of their cause. See here and here. A patron of Changing Attitude, when Government proposals for same-sex marriage were being debated he expressed his concern about the welfare of gay people whom he "feared could feel uncomfortable and unwelcome in churches". He said "Christians need to show how the Gospel of Jesus is good news for gay people". Actually the Gospel of Jesus is good news for all people. Gays have no need of a 'marriage' ceremony to prove the point.

The Archbishop has gone out of his way to ensure that this at least is one charge which cannot be leveled against him. A keen supporter of the Cardiff Mardi Gras earlier this year, he will be joining lesbian and gay Christians for a carol service tomorrow, Saturday 7 December, organised by the South Wales Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM).

Within his own diocese the Archbishop is surrounded by members of the LGBT community so one has to wonder why the South Wales LGCM need to gather together for an exclusive carol service. If the body is to be separated why not a service for the disaffected in Llandaff Cathedral followed by a show of hands indicating how uncomfortable and unwelcome they feel under current management?

From a provincial press release here:

Janet Jeffries, spokesperson for LGCM, said, “We are very honoured that the Archbishop has agreed to attend our Christmas Carols at what must be a very busy time of year for him.  We very much appreciate the support he has shown to the lesbian and gay community, both at this event and by opening the Cardiff Mardi Gras earlier this year.”

Archbishop Barry said, “I am delighted to support this carol service. Christmas is a time when we remember that God made all people in his own image and loves us all. Christ was born in a stable to parents who were refugees and he spent his life with those on the fringes of society or who were victimised because of what they were, and challenging those in authority. I think this is still a relevant message for today.”

Ms Jeffries is right. It is a busy time of year for the Archbishop but for all the wrong reasons. Unable to find a new Dean with his Cathedral deep in debt and morale at rock bottom, he spends a disproportionate amount of time satisfying the demands of the queer community - I use the word advisedly since I am reliably informed that in today's lingo, gay means rubbish. But what I find most intriguing is the Archbishop's reference to "challenging those in authority". He says  "I think this is still a relevant message for today."

Reading the many comments following recent blog entries it is clear that the Archbishop needs to heed his own advice.

Pilling: It's all about Eve

It is ten years since Michael Kalmuk and his long-time partner Kelly Montfort recited their solemn Anglican vows that would bless their relationship in what was described as the World's first "official" Anglican same-sex blessing. They had been together for twenty-one years and spent much of their careers working with people with disabilities. Story here.

Unless one is homophobic it is difficult not to be touched by such a story but the Rev. Margaret Marquardt who conducted the ceremony said in her homily that it amounted to "an act of healing for gay and lesbian people throughout the Anglican church"! In another report here she is quoted as saying said that it was an affirmation of "God's presence" in the couple's relationship, making one wonder if she was familiar with the Bible or simply chose passages to re-interpret Holy Scripture  according to her will, now common practice in liberal Anglicanism. 

A similar story can be read in the report of House of Bishops Working Group on human sexuality, the Pilling Report, where natural sympathy leads to the wrong conclusion that members of the clergy should be allowed to offer blessings to same-sex couples (summary here). Another of the report's recommendations is that The whole Church is called to real repentance for the lack of welcome and acceptance extended to homosexual people in the past, and to demonstrate the unconditional acceptance and love of God in Christ for all people. This it seems to me is the main thrust of the report. God loves all, we have been beastly to gays so same-sex unions should be blessed by the Church as an act of repentance. This conclusion ignores biblical facts but there was not unanimity. The report includes a dissenting statement by the Bishop of Birkenhead who said that he was "not persuaded that the biblical witness on same sex sexual behaviour is unclear". It is true that gays have been treated badly in society but I have not witnessed the reported lack of welcome and acceptance in the Church and don't know of anyone who does, quite the contrary.

The item in the report which I find most illuminating is the advice given by a female 'expert' which so baffled the Review Group that it is included as a separate Prologue "Living with holiness and desire". As Pilling remarks in his Forward, "One of our advisers, [the Rev Dr] Jessica Martin, challenged us to think about human sexuality more widely than most of our evidence was leading us to do. We asked her to write a paper which now forms the prologue to the report. We wanted to give others a chance to read it and reflect on it and we feared that, if we tried to integrate it into the main body of the report, much would be lost."

After her opening statement "Desire begins and ends with God", implying that its all His fault, the Rev Dr waffles on page after page implicating St Augustine of Hippo in the process before her aim is made apparent in the final sentence: "In Christ all things may be made new, every failure may be made the occasion of a generous forgiveness", or to put it another way as Pilling does, to demonstrate the unconditional acceptance and love of God in Christ for all people, ergo, same-sex blessings!

The Rev Sharon Ferguson, Chief Executive of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) welcomed the Pilling recommendations as "a small step of the Church of England towards greater inclusion but urges them to continue this work to enable the church to witness effectively to God’s love for all", echoing the Prologue message, God loves us, so what the hell!

Speaking on behalf of the Inclusive Church we have another female cleric, the Very Rev’d Dianna Gwilliams, Dean of Guildford Cathedral and Chair of Inclusive Church who says: "We hope that this will enable all Christians to find ways of celebrating the covenantal love between people which reflects the love of God for all people."

The House of Bishops has become incapable of coming to any conclusion without using women to do their thinking for them but only women who represent the old Eve. Women in the image of Mary, the new Eve, who gave us the Church in the Body of Christ have no say. Accordingly, even when it is absolutely clear that marriage is the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others and that Christ deliberately chose men, not women, to be his Apostles, they work their way around these awkward facts by spinning a yarn about inequality which, if true, must have been what Christ intended. But He saw no inequality, only difference.

The process which gave us women deacons and priests, soon to be women bishops, is being repeated. Not quite as grand as Charles and Camilla but gay couples will be able to get married in a Registry Office before their grand Church service which will appear to be a marriage ceremony. That is a very small step from an actual marriage ceremony, just as women claimed it was only a few words separating deacons from priests.

Shortly after the World's first "official" Anglican same-sex blessing took place, an article in Orthodoxy Today was published under the heading 'Thoughts on Women's Ordination'. One sentence particularly stands out: "Virtually every Protestant group that has decided to ordain women has to one degree or another begun to reject Biblical language and images of God in favor of images more acceptable to feminist theology." Pilling it seems is no exception.