The [Episcopal]…bishop of Massachusetts began 2011 by solemnizing the first lesbian marriage – of two senior Episcopalian clergy – at Boston’s St Paul’s Cathedral Saturday (January 1).
The marriage of Episcopal Divinity School, dean and president, the Very Reverend Katherine Hancock Ragsdale and Mally Lloyd, Canon to the Ordinary, was the first lesbian marriage solemnized by the Right Reverend M Thomas Shaw SSJE, Bishop Diocesan of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.
At the marriage attended by close to 400 guests, Bishop Shaw commented: “God always rejoices when two people who love each other make a life long commitment in marriage to go deeper into the heart of God through each other. It’s a profound pleasure for me to celebrate with God and my friends, the marriage of Katherine and Mally.”
Very disturbing!
This is tantamount to the Bishop of the Diocese of Massachussetts declaring that he and the Dio of Mass are no longer “in communion” with those who disagree his actions and this event.
But how will Canterbury ‘spin’ this?
Canterbury will comment that he is “A friend of the groom”. No one will pay attention.
Out and proud…
I agree with #3. What Canterbury says matters not at all. Rowan Williams has proven time and again that he is irrelevant to the witness of the Church. No one is listening who is looking for the truth.
A very generous pastoral response.
I was privileged to preach Sunday at the annual Episcopal Epiphany service at Craggy state prison near Asheville. The text is at prayerbookcatholicnc.blogspot.com.
Anathema!
ICXC NIKA
John
How ironic that they seek marriage in a Christian Cathedral and titles and offices in Christ’s Church when they do not love Christ who is The Way (Love), the Truth and the Life enough to honor, value or obey His Commandments, Word, the definition and parameters He has set for Love and sexuality and do not even value Life itself. ‘Dean’ Ragsdale believes abortion is a blessing.
It would be truly ironic if these women decide to create a designer baby via IVF and surrogate mothers, donor sperm, choosing sex, hair, skin and eye color, disposing of the excess fetuses, culling excess implanted babies, etc. like Elton John and other lesbians and gay men who ‘marry’ are doing at the expense of Christ’s Church, their salaries, medical benefits, etc.
With this crowd, it’s all about ‘Choice’ (alias, “my will be done” or getting my way.). In Australia, one ‘gay’ male has donated sperm for over 30 lesbians to have babies. There are many tangled issues determining parentage and many times these artificially ‘produced’ children have an increased risk of physical and emotional problems. The children are always the pawns and victims of Choice.
This is a “generous pastoral response” in the same way that giving a bottle of prescription sedatives or a hose and some duct tape to someone who is talking about suicide is “a generous pastoral response.” Such donations would show that the giver understood and sympathized with the person, but would not really be helpful to that person in the long run.
This story shows the depth of spiritual blindness and self-deception that has come upon many in the Episcopal Church. It is a mark of shame and sorrow.
Par for the course in TEC. To be ignored by the ABC and the AC and totally of no consequence for the upcoming Primates meeting.
Ah yes, the Very Reverend Katherine Hancock “Abortion is a Blessing” Ragsdale. (Lloyd? Refraining from lewdness, how do they get to decide who gets to be who?) Tasked with training the episcopoi of tomorrow.
T’were me I would develop a phobia of millstones.
TEC is doomed.
GREAT NEWS–More Christian evangelism for ACNA New England!!! YAY!!
Isn’t Shaw the bishop who said his diocese was a “conservative” diocese at Lambeth 2008?
Don’t look for any fall-out or conflict as a result of this ‘marriage.’
Don’t look for the Communion Partners, Camp Allen or Windsor bishops to even let out a squeak in protest.
Don’t look for the ACI to do more than issue another statement.
By allowing the ‘sexual orientation’ language into the documents of TEC and by allowing the LBGTQ, etc. crowd to enter into leadership has effectively muzzled any objections to such as this faux marriage.
TEC Bishops can now feel free to participate in pride parades, tell young people to explore their sexual gifts, invent and promote a whole alphabet of sexual orientations, reinterpret Scripture as they wish sexualizing any loving relationship, turning any Bible character into a ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’, embrace abortion as a blessing without fear of reprisal. They can also change or ignore constitutional canons as they wish. Lawlessness and anarchy reigns in TEC.
Considering their positions of power in TEC the whole thing just seems cheesy and ridiculous. Shamlike.
The scriptures record that Jesus was moved to crying only three times during His recorded adult life and ministry – – at the mourning for Lazarus, in the Garden of Gethsemane during His agony there, and as He viewed Jerusalem, and mourned its faithlessness.
I truly wonder whether He hasnt cried much more in just the last half of the 20th century than ever before. We surely have much to apologize to Him for.
Why are these people winning all the battles? It is not enough to say that TEC has doomed itself. It surely has. But the central battle, The battle to refuse to accept sexual perversions as normal and to institutionalize them under that guise, why is this fight being lost, inch by inch? We know, as if it has already happened, that three will marry and such a marriage will be accepted as a mere extension of the “marriage” here described. The people will say, ” If they love one another, what’s the problem?” Well, what IS my problem? Is there no compelling argument against this save that of the gospel? Am I fighting for a set of principles that have simply been superseded by a new and no less valuable set? My objections are at last visceral. Is this nothing but ingrained upbringing? Larry
Incidentally, does anyone know anything about Lloyd’s first marriage?
Larry
Utterly shameful. A diabolical ritual, celebrating the defilement of 2 women, a bishop, and a cathedral. Anathema!
And, there is no written doctrine of the Episcopal Church to support such a thing directly.
I call on the Primates not to ignore this. It must be condemned in the strongest terms possible. Silence is affirmation. I also call on the living Eastern and Western Patriarchs not to ignore this manifestation of darkness in the Church.
Are the Sacraments still valid in DioMass? Are we certain?
Prayers for all concerned.
An uncompromisingly orthodox AND moderate perspective on homosexuality, society & the Church from a guy pursuing ordination with AMiA:
http://bit.ly/i5Ve1h
I have no reason to believe it is true of lesbians generally, but in the case of Dean Ragsdale one has to wonder if there is a connection in her mind between her rejection of traditional marriage and the birth of her own children and her sick campaign to promote the killing of other children on an industrial scale. There is something very dark and disturbing about her and everything she does. Dalmatians may be safe around her, but the unborn children of God most certainly are not.
But perhaps what is more shocking is the ghoulish promotion and celebration of her and her un-Christian ideas by the Episcopal Church – wicked, wicked, wicked church!
RE: “TEC Bishops can now feel free to participate in pride parades, tell young people to explore their sexual gifts, invent and promote a whole alphabet of sexual orientations, reinterpret Scripture as they wish sexualizing any loving relationship, turning any Bible character into a ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’, embrace abortion as a blessing without fear of reprisal.”
Er — they “felt free” to do all those things long long before the Communion Partners was ever a twinkle in anybody’s eye, St. Nikao.
May God bless their friendship.
TEC has been doomed, I now believe since about the late 1960s. A train wreck. Goodbye old friend.