"San Fran values" - church time! - Granite Grok

“San Fran values” – church time!

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Same-sex edict worries Bay Area Episcopalians 

The Anglican Communion’s directive this week that its Episcopal branch in the United States ban the blessing of same-sex unions is a direct rebuke to the Bay Area, where the Diocese of California has blessed the practice for nearly three decades.

Laxity, meet authority.  Freedom of or for anything – meet beliefs.   Once again, I find myself commenting on another denomination within the Protestant church, thus for full disclosure, my beliefs are those of a conservative evangelical.

Unlike many Baptist churches, there is the agreement to be in a group that agrees to go by certain beliefs.  Not following those beliefs almost means a self-selection out of that group.  If one goes against certain standards, the people determining the standards have the choice to not include those that do not hew to those standards.

Rather simple, eh?

The Episcopal Church risks being severed from the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, the largest, most unified Protestant denomination in the world. The question roiling the global body is whether it can be multicultural enough to include literal believers in Nigeria as well as liberals in the Bay Area.

Only in San Fran!  Here, the author of the article, Matthai Chakko Kuruvila, is really showing a bias here.  It is not a question of being "multicultural enough"; rather, it is an adherence to a given, known set of standards.  That standard is not popular culture, passing fads, or what someone thinks might be right.  It is, however, something that does last beyond this decade’s indulgences – the Bible.

In the Bay Area diocese, which is believed to have performed more same-sex unions than any other in the country, many Episcopalians say unity must not come at any cost.

Well, at least one thing seems to be clear….


yet, when I read in the MSM, it always seems to be the Liberal wings of <anything> that is in the right, and this is no exception.

Why isn’t it the other way around?  After all, the conservative wing was established first, right?  Why not praise it instead of running it down.  This is not a slam on the Liberal wing of the Episcopals, but rather of the media (once again, trying to shape the debate from a biased viewpoint). 

"I’m resolved that we’re not going to turn our backs on any members of the diocese," said Bishop Marc Andrus, who oversees the 27,000-member diocese covering San Francisco, Marin, San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa counties and part of Santa Clara County. "If we have unity where we have hollowed out our moral core to achieve it, then it’s a hollow victory. … I don’t think we can build our unity on a foundation of injustice."

 I think the Bishop is saying the right words, but not really understanding how they are being perceived.  To me, it IS that the Liberals have hollowed out their moral core, wandering away from a strict interpretation of the moral code of the Bible.  Code word?  "…a foundation of injustice".

Those "mainline" Protestant denominations that have decided to jump on the topic of the social day, like in social justice, are reaping the change to the leftward turn – the result is the answer – plunging membership…..but I digress.

 

The issue of sexual orientation has been stirring the Anglican Communion since 2003, when the Episcopal Church approved the consecration of a gay, partnered man as a bishop of New Hampshire. More than a third of the 38 Anglican Communion provinces worldwide had declared themselves as being in "broken" or "impaired" relations over the issue.

The standard was set, and then the San Fran crowd decided to break it (in terms of the world wide body).  Who gets to set the standard?  It seems that the San Fran group is being taken to task, and they do not like it in the least.

 

But on Monday in Tanzania, a gathering of the 38 leaders of those provinces, including the Episcopal Church, collectively issued an ultimatum. They want the Episcopal Church’s bishops to unequivocally state by Sept. 30 that they will not authorize rites for same-sex blessings and declare that clergy in homosexual relationships cannot be approved as bishops.

Enforcement time – for if standards are written but not kept, why bother?  If one does not wish to keep to those standards, or they become onerous, then isn’t it time to do the honest thing and find a place of worship that does have the same beliefs?

 

Katharine Jefferts Schori (previously posted here), the presiding bishop of the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church, issued a statement on Tuesday that characterized the global church’s moratorium on same-sex blessings and gay bishops as "a season of fasting."

Simple spinning.  Nothing more, but nothing less.  The art of saying something but without meaning – no agreement nor condemnation.

 

"If you’re not addressing what you believe, you eventually are going to enact it in the actions of the church," Miller said. "You will continue to encourage gays and lesbians to participate in the life of the church without being told that they need to repent of their sin and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and the transforming power of the Gospel." "Being part of a worldwide church is very important to us," said Burrows, who is gay, like an estimated one-fourth of the Diocese of California’s clergy. "It’s not just what we individually believe, but what we believe as a community. Being together as a community is an essential element of what our faith is about."

[snip]

For Christians who are homosexual, the Bay Area offers an array of places to worship and marry using the same rites as heterosexuals. But remaining Episcopal is vital to many church members who are gay and lesbian.

The problem is that an entire community has to believe in something entirely.  The problem here, and I think it is rather obvious, is that not all are believing the same thing.  It is NOT a community when some of the beliefs are diametrically opposed to others.  That is not the definition of community no matter how one wants to spin it.

The Anglican Communion’s directive this week wants to ensure that there is no official practice.

Even if the Episcopal Church should agree with that request, that won’t change ministry toward gays and lesbians, said the Rev. John Kirkley, board president for Oasis California, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ministry in the Bay Area diocese.

"The fact that a rite is not authorized does not mean same-sex blessings will not happen," said Kirkley, who also is the rector at St. John the Evangelist in San Francisco. "In fact, I’m absolutely positive they’ll continue to happen. I know I’ll be performing them."

In other words, "it doesn’t matter what the authorities say, I’m going to do what I want to do".  Fine.  One harsh reaction is "spoiled child syndrome."; the other is "go where it is allowed".

Cannot have it both ways – being part of a church that condemns your practice.  And a good look at yourself would mean that one would have to agree, all militancy aside.

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