Bishop Michael L. Vono of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande, which includes El Paso, said the liturgy is an issue of human dignity that breaks barriers for the gay community.
“I’m very positive about it,” he said. “We live in an age where there is still a lot of judgment, still a lot of discrimination that happens within Christianity. We exclude people that are not like ourselves.
“So this may be the Jesus thing to do in our age because Jesus forced the issue that no one is rejected by God and that all people are loved. And if you have two responsible people, whether heterosexual or gay, who love in a Christian way — which is responsibly and exclusively monogamous and help each other and forgive each other — what more can we ask for?”
We may not be able to ask for more but that avoids scripture, tradition and the understanding of most of the world’s Anglicans. I guess it is all about us.
[blockquote]”The Rev. Kati Houts, of the Metropolitan Community Church in El Paso, said she is glad the Episcopal Church is taking this step. Her church has been doing same-sex blessings for many years ‘It sounds like a good thing, but what’s ironic is that the blessing that I use comes from the book of Common Prayer, which is what the Episcopalians use. We have always looked at this as a marriage, taken seriously and with counseling beforehand.'”
[/blockquote].
Wink wink, nudge, nudge.
I see Vono resorts to the 1979 Baptismal Covenant and “human dignity” as part of his reasoning as well as the “no one is rejected by God and that all people are loved” argument.
I guess he forgot all those parts about human beings rejecting God.
“…which is responsibly and exclusively monogamous…”
If the quote is accurate, then we have another example of a bishop who doesn’t understand enough Greek to know what ‘monogamous’ means – one marriage.
Looking ahead to Sunday, maybe somebody will preach on this in the context of Jesus at Cana. More likely, in that diocese, it will be about changing the (pure and holy) water of the old traditions into the (spoiled and defiled) wine of the New Thing.
“We exclude people that are not like ourselves.”
Ironic, isn’t it, that he stated it that way- declarative sentence. That is indeed exactly what he and almost every TEC diocesan does- excludes the people who are not like them. If you are not in lockstep with their revisionist theology, you had better find another church.
If the losses for 2002 to 2011 continue, the ddiocese may look liike this in 2020: 51 churches, 2,465 ASA, 29 Marraiges, and 57 Infant Baptisms. I did not include blesings in marraiges above. Statmann
When we visited in ’99, Bishop Kelshaw was Bishop. It was a diocese of lively faith, they were adding churches and St Marks on the Mesa was a great place to worship. We would’ve considered moving there. What happened???