(We have been over this before many times–the Episcopal Church is set to be the third mainline denomination in North America to do this–the first was the United Church of Christ, and the second was the United Church of Canada–KSH).
The U.S. Episcopal Church is poised to become the first major religious denomination in the United States to approve a rite for blessing gay marriages after its bishops overwhelmingly approved such a liturgy on Monday.
The proposed blessing was agreed by the church’s Chamber of Bishops at a meeting in Indianapolis and is expected to receive final approval from its House of Deputies later this week, Ruth Meyers, a chair of the Episcopalians’ Subcommittee on Prayer Book, Liturgy and Church Music, told Reuters. The decision would go into effect in December and make the Episcopal Church, an independent U.S.-based institution affiliated with global Anglicanism, the biggest U.S. church to allow a liturgy for same-sex marriages. The Episcopal Church is the 14th-largest denomination in the United States with nearly 2 million adherents, according to the National Council of Churches.
Finally, the propaganda headline this is all for…calling the Episcopal organization “big”. Reuters is as good at math as the Bishop Shaw.
Interesting headline from Reuters. One of the bishops, I forget which, said something to the effect that “we may talk of “blessings,” the CNN headline will say we’re blessing gay “marriage.””
Well, it’s not CNN, but indeed, that is what is being communicated by many of the journalists covering this story.
Kendall, not to quibble with your comments, but even though not “big” numerically, at least to the mainstream media, TEC is a “major” denomination in the way UCC never has been. (You know… Church of Presidents, “the Establishment at Prayer” and all that… ) And of course the United Church of Canada is not in the U.S., so is automatically excluded from the lede which specifies “in the United States…”
“…the first major religious denomination in the United States to approve a rite for blessing gay marriages….” Somebody sure was snookered here.
My heart is crying for Christ’s Church………..