The Dean of Leighlin Cathedral in the Diocese of Cashel & Ossory has become the first serving Church of Ireland clergyman to enter a same-sex civil partnership in the Republic of Ireland.
The public announcement of the Dean’s same-sex civil partnership and his Bishop’s apparent support for the move is likely to pitch the Church of Ireland into the same battle that has torn apart the Episcopal Church and has the potential to divide the Irish church, sources tell CEN.
In an interview with BBC Ulster, the Very Rev Tom Gordon stated he and his partner held the ceremony in a registry office in July. Unlike the Church of England, which requires clergy who have entered same-sex civil partnerships to remain celibate, the Church of Ireland has not taken a position on the matter.
I rather doubt that anyone will be striking up a chorus of Its A Great Day For The Irish.
“Wide is the gate, and broad the way, that leads to destruction.”
So they’ve been around since the sixteenth century and they have no teaching on whether sex ought only to be within the marriage of a man and a woman. It’s enough to make you weep…
Mr. Gordon may be a “Very Reverend” as stated in the article, but he
isn’t very reverent regarding traditional amrriage.