‘Church of England’s report on marriage and sexuality suffers setback at Synod’
“A report from the House of Bishops about marriage and same sex relationships has received a significant setback in a vote at the General Synod in London. It is an embarrassing symbolic rejection of the Bishops’ report which had stated that there should be no change in the church’s teaching while calling for a “fresh tone” on the issues. Speaking before the vote, the Archbishop of Canterbury said he believed passionately that the report that had been worked on and struggled with was a roadmap and he promised the church would find a new “inclusion.”
However many speakers in the debate said the report was not clear enough or did not go far enough. …
some evangelical members of Synod also expressed concern, fearing that the Bishops’ report was a softening of the guidelines on sexual morality.”
– This report from The Anglican Communion News Service. Photo credit: Lam Pal. ACNS.
See also: Church of England Bishops’ Report: More Questions than Answers – Canon Phil Ashey, American Anglican Council, 04 February 2017.
The Benedict Option: A Conversation with Rod Dreher
A fascinating conversation between Albert Mohler and Rod Dreher.
How can the church be a light in the darkness of the secular world?
Listen here, 62 minutes.
‘Welby risks a fatal Anglican split over homosexuality’
“Personally, I believe the most worrying element of the [Bishop’s Report on Marriage and Same Sex Relationships] is the way the bishops have reinterpreted the law of the C of E about where our doctrine can be found. They appear to sideline Scripture and the traditional formularies of the Church, in favour of finding the boundaries of freedom in Canon Law.”
– from an interview with Reform’s Susie Leafe, speaking about the Church of England’s General Synod, meeting tonight (Australian time).
Link via Anglican Mainstream.
GAFCON UK’s response to the lobby group OneBodyOneFaith
“GAFCON UK welcomes the publication of the OneBodyOneFaith statement “A time to build”.
The statement is admirably clear in its wholesale abandonment of any pretence that OneBodyOneFaith has any respect for Biblical authority or any interest in the wellbeing of global Anglicanism. …”
– GAFCON UK responds with clarity to yet another call to ditch the authority of God’s word.
‘Gender theory banned in NSW classrooms’
“NSW public school teachers have been banned from teaching gender theory in the classroom after an independent review into the state’s sex and health education resources.”
– Story from The Australian. (subscription only)
C of E college apologises for students’ attempt to ‘queer evening prayer’
“A leading theological college that trains priests for the Church of England has apologised after it hosted a service to mark LGBT history month that referred to God as ‘the Duchess’.
Student priests at Westcott House in Cambridge organised the evensong service on Tuesday in the college chapel. …”
– Story from The Guardian. Photo (not of the event described above) from Westcott House.
Related:
Westcott House History:
“Westcott House began its life in 1881 as the Cambridge Clergy Training School whose first president was the then Regius Professor of Divinity, Brooke Foss Westcott. A pioneering and respected New Testament scholar himself, the school was the product of Westcott’s own passionate concern to raise the standard of clergy education and so took the name of its founder after his death. … ”
Church of England Bishops’ Report: More Questions than Answers
“For the last week I have been digesting the ‘Report from the House of Bishops on Marriage and Same Sex Relationships after the Shared Conversations,’ known by its shorthand as GS (General Synod) 2055.
This “Report” was a document prepared by the Church of England’s Bishops and presented to the Church’s General Synod last week. The perspective of LGBT pressure groups within the Church of England is that they were betrayed by the Bishops’ upholding the Church’s traditional teaching on marriage. Some are even hinting at going ahead with same sex marriage in defiance of the bishops.
The disappointment of the LGBT community has been matched by suspicion and criticism from Biblically orthodox Anglicans in the Church of England. To them, GS 2055 is a Trojan Horse. The Bishops’ failure to define boundaries in a clearly Biblical way ensures a theological incoherence that will permit ‘generous pastoral provision’ for LGBT couples to will quickly become facts on the ground (new liturgies and blessings) that make the Church’s teaching on marriage a mere shell.
I sympathize with those suspicions because of my experience with such ‘Trojan Horse’ reports in The Episcopal Church as it marched to gay marriage.
Despite my sympathies, I have tried to find an objective point between the hermeneutics of suspicion and the hermeneutics of hope. I’ve tried to read all 19 pages of GS 2055 inductively, asking what the text really says. All 19 pages are agonizing to read—rather like an essay which reads ‘on the one hand’ and ‘on the other hand’ with no resolution. Except of course for the resolve that ‘it is hubristic for anyone to propose that there is one definitive answer which solves all the moral, ethical and missiological problems we face.’ (para. 7) …
Barbara Gauthier goes on to make a telling observation, from paragraph 65 of the Report:
‘65. ….To maintain an unambiguous position on [the] doctrine [of marriage] while enabling a generous freedom for pastoral practice that does not directly and publicly undermine it is entirely consistent with our traditions and is a perfectly coherent approach to take. (emphasis added)
The implication would seem to be that whatever might ‘directly and publicly’ undermine the doctrine of marriage may be perfectly admissible if done ‘indirectly and privately.’ The progressive wing of the Episcopal Church used that ploy for years, surreptitiously establishing facts on the ground, until it couldn’t be ignored any longer.’…”
– From The American Anglican Council’s Canon Phil Ashey. Read it all here.
Why proposed same-sex marriage balancing clauses would be constitutional and right
“Last week I had the privilege of giving evidence to the Australian Senate Select Committee on the Exposure Draft of the Marriage Amendment (Same-Sex Marriage) Bill. … The Committee was considering the terms of an Exposure Draft Bill which had been released last year by the Commonwealth Attorney-General, as the sort of legislation which might be introduced were Australians to support change of the law in this way in a plebiscite. …
While the proposal for a plebiscite on the issue was defeated in Parliament last year, the Senate obviously considers it worthwhile discussing the merits of the Exposure Draft, as it represents to some extent Government thinking on what the change might look like. …”
– at Law and Religion Australia, Neil Foster argues that “balancing clauses protecting the religious freedom of those involved in solemnising and celebrating same sex marriages must be an important part of any legislation introducing same sex marriage into Australia”.
Proposed bill ‘doesn’t protect religious freedom’
“The Diocese of Sydney has told a Senate Inquiry the proposed bill on same-sex marriage does not sufficiently protect freedom of religion.
The Senate inquiry into the exposure draft of the legislation allowing same-sex marriage has been holding public hearings in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra this week. The government has vowed the issue must be put to a plebiscite first, although a bill to enable a public vote was defeated the first time it was introduced into the Senate.
However, the committee is still examining enabling legislation which would be introduced, if a plebiscite were to result in a vote in favour of same-sex marriage.
The Diocese of Sydney made a submission to the public inquiry [PDF download], and the Chair of the Religious Freedom Reference Group, the Bishop of South Sydney Michael Stead, appeared at the inquiry. Bishop Stead was called alongside the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney. …”
– Read the full report by Russell Powell at SydneyAnglicans.net.
Update: The Australian Christian Lobby also has a report, with a copy of their submission.
Impossible to Believe — Preaching in a Secular Culture
“When people identify as believers in Jesus Christ they are making a far more individualistic statement than was possible in years past. Furthermore, they are doing so in the face of alternative worldview options that were simply unavailable until very recently.
In fact, as I was doing research for my book on atheism I learned that the very first use of ‘atheist’ in English came from Miles Coverdale who invented the word during his time translating Scripture.
The remarkable thing to notice is that Coverdale had to invent a term for someone who did not believe in God because he did not know anyone who actually held that conviction. No one in the Elizabethan age would have denied God’s existence.…”
– In his second article in a series on Preaching in a Secular Age, Albert Mohler makes some very worthwhile observations. Read it here.
Dying with dignity
“Recently, the South Australian Parliament debated and rejected the Death with Dignity Bill, which proposed to legalise euthanasia. It was the 15th time a euthanasia bill had been rejected by the house.
The bill’s proposer predicts that this is not the end of the debate, referring to the overwhelming public support for “the right to choose and have a dignified death”. With Andrew Denton regularly advertising his desire for legal euthanasia with evangelistic fervour, I agree that we have not seen the end of the debate. But I still hope for a more honest one. …”
– This is an important article by Dr. Megan Best, bioethicist and palliative care doctor who works for HammondCare. She serves on the Social Issues Committee of the Diocese of Sydney.
From SydneyAnglicans.net.
(Dr. Best is also the author of Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, from Matthia Media.)
Secularism, Preaching, and the Challenges of Modernity
“I began my chapter on preaching and postmodernism in We Cannot Be Silent with these words, “A common concern seems to emerge now wherever Christians gather: The task of truth-telling is stranger than it used to be. In this age, telling the truth is tough business and not for the faint-hearted. The times are increasingly strange.”
As preachers we recognize how strange the times have become. Almost anyone seeking to carry out a faithful pulpit ministry recognizes that preachers must now ask questions we have not had to consider in the past. We recognize that preaching has been displaced from its once prominent position in the culture.
Many of us are wondering, why is preaching more challenging in our cultural moment than it has been in other times? …”
– Albert Mohler begins a three-part series on Preaching in a Secular Age.
Religious Freedom, transgender issues and abortion – overruling the US Health Department
“The recent (31 Dec 2016) decision of US Federal District Court Judge O’Connor in Franciscan Alliance Inc v Burwell (ND TX, Case 7:16-cv-00108-O; Dec. 31, 2016) (thanks to “Religion Clause” for the report and information) is a significant one.
In short, the Obama administration had used the prohibition on ‘sex discrimination’ in US Federal law to enact an administrative regulation requiring Christian health care providers (and some State governments) to provide transgender ‘transition’ procedures, and abortions, to all patients, arguing that denying this coverage amounted to sex discrimination.
This highly questionable interpretation has now been overturned by this very significant decision…”
– Neil Foster, at Law and Religion Australia, reports on developments in the United States.
Update on 2016 Law and Religion issues and preview for 2017
“It seems a good time of the year to take stock of the current status of some important Law and Religion issues discussed this year, and to flag some upcoming issues for the New Year.”
– At Law and Religion Australia, Neil Foster provides a concise summary of some of the key issues in 2016, plus a heads-up on another Parliamentary Inquiry, this one into “the status of the human right to freedom of religion or belief“.
Putting the ‘Christmas’ back into ‘Merry Christmas’ – Archbishop Davies on 2GB
Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Glenn Davies, joins Chris Smith about the lack of the phrase “Merry Christmas” around this Christmas – interviewed this morning (23 December 2016) on Sydney radio 2GB.
Listen here. A great interview.
Related: Archbishop has blasted inner city grinches – Daily Telegraph (subscription)
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…