The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia hedged on recognizing same-sex unions Saturday, instead voting to form a committee to set standards for church-sanctioned blessings of such unions once they are approved by the entire 2-million-member Episcopal Church.
About 346 delegates to the dioceses annual council meeting at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria narrowly voted — by a show of hands — to form the committee.
It was a less radical choice for the 80,000-member Virginia diocese, the largest in the Episcopal Church. A substitute amendment suggesting the diocese allow openly gay clergy and same-sex blessings failed after a lengthy debate.
wow, they lost all those conservative parishes and still can’t get the agenda through.
The consequences of Lee, the bishop not the general, are noted to fall under Spencer’s axiom: all actions have more than intended consequences. The demise of the EcUSA in VA did not go unnoticed by the remaining pewsitters. This merely slows down but does not halt the process. Unless, of course, the PB and Beers can think of a way to sue VA into something different, like, say, being more inclusive or something.
No. 1: Yes, interesting, but–
“Saturday’s resolution was a compromise between three previous proposed resolutions: one that proposed Episcopalians keep to a traditional understanding of marriage as between a man and a woman…”
–I wonder if that one would have stood any chance of passing if those parishes had not left and were still in TECDioVa.
IMHO, this report makes more sense in the context that Bp. Lee had tolerated SSBs, even prior to the departure of parishes for CANA.
🙄