A Scottish Cathedral Provost Gets It

You almost have to smile at the bishops of the Episcopal Church in the states. It would appear that they have managed to get Rowan Williams the headlines that he wanted without changing their policy on anything at all.

The BBC is reporting things particularly inaccurately.
They say today:

Leaders of the Episcopal Church in the United States have agreed to halt the ordination of gay clergy to prevent a split in the Anglican Church.
The Church will also no longer approve prayers to bless same-sex couples.

But neither statement is true at all. The bishops have not said they will halt the ordination of gay people. Some people think that they said that they would not ordain any more gay bishops. That is not quite right either. The polity lingers on. If any diocese elects a bishop who is in a partnership, it will still be for the other diocesan bishops with jurisdiction & Standing Committees to vote on whether to confirm the election just as they do for all bishops. We might presume that quite a few of them would vote against such an appointment at this time. We must also assume that quite a few would vote in favour. The process has changed not a jot as a result of this latest meeting.

Read it all. (Hat tip: DM)

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, - Anglican: Commentary, Anglican Provinces, Episcopal Church (TEC), Same-sex blessings, Scottish Episcopal Church, Sept07 HoB Meeting, Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion), TEC Bishops

9 comments on “A Scottish Cathedral Provost Gets It

  1. Mike Bertaut says:

    Nailed it. He’s absolutely nailed it. And he sounds really happy and impressed.

    KTF…mrb

  2. Rob Eaton+ says:

    I wasn’t sure, Kendall…..
    Is that a “sotted” Provost?

    RGEaton (just looking for clarity)

  3. Rob Eaton+ says:

    Oh,man, you changed it just as I was posting. Elves …. just remove my comments. Too bad — it was kind of refreshingly humorous.

  4. Kendall Harmon says:

    humor is much needed, rob, I am leaving it.

    I omitted the c in scottish by accident the first time I posted it.

  5. Ad Orientem says:

    The BBC is an entity of whom one just takes whatever they say with a very very large grain of salt.

  6. Pb says:

    I was struck by the NT reading for yesterday about yes being yes and no being no. All else is said to be from the evil one. I would assume that includes the HOB resolution.

  7. azusa says:

    Ah, yes, the Vanishing Piskies – noo ye see ’em, noo ye dinnae …

  8. Katherine says:

    The BBC has since corrected that story to refer to gay bishops rather than gay clergy. But I saw it as this guy quotes it early this morning.

  9. dwstroudmd+ says:

    Well, count on the Scots to name the problem accurately.

    “Aye, Cap’n, the warp drive is fouled! I dinna ken it be fix’ed. It’s that dam’ polity switch! Aye! ‘n’ the gender drive is ben’ all to hell, sir!”