A former Ludlow priest today revealed he is turning his back on the Church of England so he can lead the weddings of gay and mixed-religion couples.
Mark Townsend, from Leominster, said he had grown tired of the “creakiness and backwardness” of the church so he will join the Open Episcopal Church.
[blockquote] He wants to be able to express his pagan-leaning beliefs in the new role and a druid chief and goddess priestess have been invited to his induction[/blockquote] So the real story isn’t “Why did he quit?” The real story is “Why wasn’t he expelled?” What exactly is the usefulness of a church that cannot or will not police its own doctrinal boundaries?
carl
[blockquote]“But I’ll be able to be myself finally and do things like gay ceremonies, unusual baptisms and marriages between Christians and Buddhists. I still love the Church of England but I got tired of the creakiness and backwardness of it all.”[/blockquote]
Exactly what is an “unusual baptism”?
Please, please I beg you…tell me this is an article from The Onion.
#2…. it’s hard to know. But it probably means changing the trinitarian formula (I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit). E.g.: I baptize you with the tears of Mother Earth, etc.
Or he might by alluding to “water sports”, since he also mentions looking forward to gay ceremonies.
[blockquote] “I still see myself as a progressive Christian priest … “[/blockquote] Yes, so do we. And an archetypal progressive Christian priest at that.[blockquote] Exactly what is an “unusual baptismâ€?[/blockquote] The liturgy starts out:
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the fountain boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and owlet’s wing,
For a charm of baptismal trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
carl
How extraordinary.
#2 “Unusual baptisms” – bespoke liturgies for folks who don’t see themselves as quite Christian.
#4 That’s a bit crude.
You know I just presumed that he’d been to seminary at Cuddesdon. He had. Occasionally one hopes to have one’s expectations disappointed.
Driver8,
Arguably the shift in attitude at Cuddesdon was brought on when Robert Runcie was principal there. I wonder if he really understood what he was doing?
Carl at #5 – very good!
By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.
I’ll give him points for leaving the Church of England if he wants to be a druid/pagan, conduct same-sex “weddings,” etc. It’s a back-handed compliment (though presumably not intended as such) — implying that there is still actual Christianity in the C of E.