3. Did not repeal B033 (last Convention’s resolution which asks bishops and standing committees to exercize “restraint” in consenting to the election of any bishop whose “manner of life” would cause additional strains on the Anglican Communion.)…
5. Authorized the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to work on designing rites for the blessing of same gender unions which would need to be brought back to the next General Convention for possible authorization in “trial use.”
6. Did not authorize any “public rites” for such blessings at the present time. The point of working on these for the future is so that we can get our theology right on these to know what we are actually doing as a church. This is crucial because the society is moving so quickly toward “gay marriage” and the church needs to be clear about what we think we are going when, and if, we bless such civil unions.
I promise not to rob the bank until such time as I rob the bank. Yep that’s a moratorium all right.
I love his No. 1 thing about ‘to try and stay focused on mission’ when they basically cut the entire Evangelism line item out of the budget.
Bishop Epting was worried about being pilloried in Times Square and nasty conversations at cocktail parties if the Episcopal “Church” ever moved backward on the gaygenda (as he complained about having to spend time on the subject in Louisiana to the backward folks there in 2007). He’s safe now.
‘Course, he could spend time with actual ecumenical stuff – you know like the positions of the Orthodox Churches, the Roman Church, and all the “other” churches who hold the normative Christian teaching on human sexuality. He could square the circle with them and the language of the GC2009 – especially with all that money being saved on evangelism.
Meh.
There’s a curious inversion in the Episcopal Church. When I was a naive young philosophy major, I was taught that you developed your theology and derived your ethics and church doctrine from there. For example, Aquinas had Scripture, tradition and Aristotle, he pondered a bit, did a little lecturing and then came out with the Summa Theologica. The Episcopal Bishops have the conclusion they wish to reach and are working out the theology to get to that conclusion.
It all seems rather topsy-turvy.
[i] Comment deleted by elf. [/i]
No bishop can properly cite a GC resolution as justification for exercising restraint. There is no moratorium.
🙄
I think that Bp. Epting and those who are of like mind believe that BO33 is still in effect, but that a non-celibate gay person is not one “whose ‘manner of life’ would cause additional strains on the Anglican Communion.” I know this strains logic, and ignores the reality in the Communion , but it’s the only way that one could make Bp. Epting’s argument.