The liberal fightback against Anglican conservatives and the Archbishop of Canterbury has begun. Open warfare is now declared.
Pro-gays in the Church of England are planning a survey of all LGBT clergy, in and out of the closet, in London, Southwark and throughout the Church. In the capital, they reckon, it is as many as 20 per cent. They are also intending to survey precisely how many gay blessings have been and are being done. Again, estimates put the number in the hundreds.
After that, bearing in mind the General Synod elections next year, they will make a push for the Church of England to approve gay blessings and gay ordinations to the priesthood and episcopate, as The Episcopal Church has done.
hmmmmm, the uneasy true or pause is over…sounds like full scale war.
As I wrote many months ago, the time to fight this was many years ago. If you don’t want partnered homosexual bishops, don’t allow partnered homosexual priests. If you don’t want partnered homosexual priests, don’t allow partnered homosexual deacons, etc.
The camel’s nose under the tent and all…
Leave it to Ruthie to carry the rainbow banner. Perhaps we need a Gay Communion to lead the Gay provinces and the Gay churches for all the Gay Bishops and the Gay clergy for all the Gay parishoners. Maybe that is where Gay Colonialism will reach its nadir and leave me and my family ALONE.
No matter what they do my family will worship in the ancient faith in the traditional Anglican way.
Intercessor
She does not provide any evidence for this one:
[blockquote]”A new TEC outpost in London is one possibility being considered.”[/blockquote]
I did not know that was included in the budget. Maybe there are some covert ops going on.
Anybody not see this coming? Anybody? [crickets chirping]
Reallignment comes to the UK. Just as conservatives have begun to line up behind GAFCON liberals will line up with TEC. This will happen everywhere, including Africa, eventually. Will both parties be able to remain in the AC? Stay tuned!
This will surely blow the cover of the ‘Fulcrum’ liberal ‘open evangelicals’ which seems to be based chiefly in Southwark Diocese in East London, claims to be evangelical and cosntantly calls for gay blessings and gay ordinations.
The ‘Fulcrum’ people need to decide now whether they will return to their evangelical roots or accept that they are really post-evangelical liberals. Southwark diocese has many gay clergy, according to gay groups in the UK, and ‘Fulcrum’ has been doing the public fighting for them.
Scene: A pub in central London, Simon, Ruthie, Colin, Giles, Martin and Christina and a few others:
“Have you seen Jonathan’s column? We can’t let Rowan’s Covenant go through can we?
G: “Oh no, it’s not English”
M: “He’s Welsh”
C: “That’s not the point”
G: “Let’s see – who’s here? Inclusive Church? ..[silence]…Oh, um, I’m here.”
G: “Changing Attitude?”
C: “Present”
G: “Modern Churchpeople’s Union, The Clergy Consultation, Evangelical Fellowship of Lesbian and Gay Anglicans, General Synod Human Sexuality Group, Group for the Rescinding of the Act of Synod, Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement..?”
G,M,C: “Yes, we’re all here”
G: “Right, all present and accounted for”
Christina: “Don’t forget WATCH – Marilyn and I are here”
G: “Oh yes, of course, not forgetting there are ladies present”
A.N. Other: “Where?”
G: “Hurrumph, I call this meeting of the Red Lion Inter-Planetary Inclusive Anglican Action Group together for the purpose of planning, um, some, um, er..Action.”
All: Hooray! Goody!”
Ruthie: “Ooh, great, so what are you going to do?”
C: “We are going to issue a statement”
All: “Oh yes, let’s have a statement”
M: “Signed by us all”
All: “That’s a good idea – what will it say?”
G: “That we are not happy”
M: “No not happy at all”
[and so on…..time and 7 rounds later:]
G: “So we can list all the gay people in the Church of England, whether they are in or out of the closet”
Ruthie: “How will you know if they are not out”
G: “Well we can tell”
M: “They wear purple shirts for a start”
C: “And they watch Big Brother”
G: “And they read my articles in the Guardian”
Ruthie: “I see – well this is all just so breathlessly exciting – I must go and write it all up in my paper – I can’t wait”
S: “Me too – last one to publish is a sissie – oops, er, I mean a sister-in-Christ of course.
A.N. Other: “So one for the road?”
azusa (#7),
I’m no fan of Fulcrum, but you’re not being at all fair to them. But I’ll let a Brit respond to your outrageous comment and offer a rebuttal. However, please remember that not bearing false witness against a neighbor is one of the top ten commandments.
Now as for this juicy article, personally, I think the kind of polarization it represents within the CoE is actually a good thing. It helps provide real clarity, as painful as that is. I think it might be a very positive development if this plan were carried out, and as complete a list of LGBT clergy as possible were made public, naming names and the parishes they serve. Likewise, it would really be useful to everyone if a full list of all the places where SSB’s are quietly going on was openly published. Let the truth come out, and then let the chips fall where they may.
In fact, I think Integrity ought to consider publishing such a list in this country too. The more comprehensive the better. I’m all for it.
[i]”A house divided against itself cannot stand.”[/i]
David Handy+
#8 PM…thanks for the dessert as I just finished lunch.
Cheers!
Intercessor
i’m with you no. 9, truth is always best.
#9 -NRA, you’re a fair kind of guy, so I listen to your words with attention. I was blunt in my words, but how did I bear false witness? Anyone reading the ‘Fulcrum’ website (which is all I’ve done) can verify what I’ve said. There are one or two contrarian voices (as there are here), but the vast majority affirm homosexual relationships. Read it and see – this is where their ‘open’ (modern personalist) hermeneutic has led them. That’s why I call them post-evangelical – most of them started in the fold and many have moved on. It’s called ‘liberalism’ and there is nothing new about this.
Who do they vent their spleen against? Classical liberals, liberal catholics, agnostics? No – conservative evangelicals.
Your call for the LGBT clergy and SSB parishes to ‘out’ themselves is one I fully support. But they won’t do it.
[Commenters are requested to stay on the thread topic – Elf]
[blockquote] “A new TEC outpost in London is one possibility being considered.”[/blockquote]
Sounds like boundary crossing to me.
Watch the domino effect kick in: first TEC and Canada, then CofE, then the majority of the Anglican Communion.
#5 I did. Went and swam the Tiber. Not the most popular solution, I know. But the Anglican Church as we knew it is going flatline.
Anglicanism: Seemed like a good idea at the time.
Last one out turn off the lights . . .
A lot of these organisations are relatively small beer. There is one notable absence from the line up: Affirming Catholicism.
I am not sure that this thing of outing gay clergy will not backfire – there is a touch of the Peter Tatchell’s to such desperation as well as bringing priests who may become subject to discipline into the open. I have argued for the CofE to remain detached from the divisions TEC and ACoC have brought on themselves and I say that as much of the hints of disloyalty of Richard Coekin as of Giles Fraser.
The more ominous note, Pageantmaster, is the idea in the Times of London news article saying that they are getting ready to fight for Synod representatives in the upcoming elections. Conservatives, whether evangelical or catholic, had better get their act together and field an acceptable candidate for each seat and fight to get them elected. Gledhill does get overenthusiastic in her reporting, but the threat here seems very real.
Well, the evangelicals have the thriving parishes and the numbers. I think these little organizations would be hard-pressed to find a whole lot of liberals who are willing to get involved in the church.
And if they think TEC has the bucks to help fund their enterprise, well, they’re in for a surprise. The “rich Americans” stereotype falls flat.
Your comments give a very interesting perspective, Pageantmaster – thanks for that. Very interesting point that the AffCaths aren’t obviously involved. Are you suggesting that in fact this is more like the English church rebels having their French Revolution (a bit like a tempest) in a teacup? Is it not going to become any more hard-hitting? I was starting to see it as a culmination to a couple hundred years of quiet seething by certain constituents of the British Empire. But it’s hard to be sure from a US point of view – where it’s the norm for underdogs, real or imagined, to fight hard and in the same generation walk away with enough spoils to keep them happy, triumphant and prospering too (just watch the clip of Michelle Malkin with the ‘ladies’ on The View TV show if you don’t understand what I mean).
But Katherine, we WANT them to win seats, as many as possible. A major victory will be the very thing. Then, then, the rest of England and the US will see beyond smoke and mirrors to the true nature of the beast. The is nothing like winning power to force one’s hand. This will separate the blare of trumpets on the campaign trail from the grinding of ill matched gears in the mills of success – as even Pres. Obama is discovering, day by day. Larry
Larry Morse, I don’t want to see the Church of England go down under the weight of the same things which are destroying ECUSA. If it does, I will mourn, just as I mourn the now-accelerating death spiral of my own former church.
Perhaps we need a Gay Communion to lead the Gay provinces and the Gay churches for all the Gay Bishops and the Gay clergy for all the Gay parishoners. Maybe that is where Gay Colonialism will reach its nadir and leave me and my family ALONE.
That of course would be religating Gay (and one might assume Lesbian) people to a Gay ghetto so that you may live without them.
Growing up in the America’s Deep South, I heard this many times … although not so often about homosexual persons … but about African Americans. “Why do they have to live in my neightborhood, shop at my store, attend my school? Why do they have to bother me?”
Such attitude is nothing short of bigotry. Moreover, it is being totally self-centered at the expense of others.
Who I ask is not leaving whom alone?
Funny how you glibly trade the concept of sexual sin for the word bigotry.
Such a cliche response.
Intercessor
Why do people try to equate sinful exual behavior with race? All African-Americans are African American, all Chinese are Chinese, Japanese are Japanese, Irish are Irish, et…etc… ethnicity and sinful sexual behavior are not equal. Trying to make it so is a part of the problem.
FFV, if “accepting” gays means having to acquiesce to their sin and even bless it as holy, then it’s best they be excluded until such time as, as individuals, they can come to see the truth.
I meant to also write that not all people of all races are homosexual or Lesbian….and being homosexual and lesbian afflicts all races….
[A number of comments have been deleted – would commenters please raise their game when commenting on T19 – Elf]
But it won’t go down, Katherine. TEC’s putative demise is instructive to all who watch. The English watchers will be wiser and better advised in their organization to save this ancient institution, but FIRST t hey must be energized, and letting power fall into the hands of the moguls of the LEFT will be the energizing force. TEC’s failures have been illuminating; I simply doubt that they will be repeated in England.
Larry