Saturday, August 8, 2009

The English care about their clergy


From the London Guardian-

A recent letter writer said: "The struggles of the contending parties in Anglicanism are over something to which the mainstream populations of the developed nations are totally indifferent."

And Marilyn McCord Adams described Rowan Williams as the "ex-officio colonial godfather who feels the burden of keeping the Anglican communion together".

Many in England share such views. But, if there is a threat against LGBT clergy here, the English can be expected to react strongly.

First though, there's a specific reason why a dispute about same-sex blessings in the US or Canada is a very poor argument for having a schism in the Church of England now.

Few know this, but the Church of England has, as a matter of plain fact, remained in communion with the Lutheran Church of Sweden, and also with some Old Catholic dioceses in continental Europe, throughout the past decade, in full knowledge that each of these bodies had given official approval for same-sex blessings at various times during the 1990s. So breaking communion with North Americans on this issue now makes no logical sense.

The rest is here-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/aug/07/anglican-gay-clergy-communion

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