…there are a couple of underlying realities we have to acknowledge. First, as I wrote in my letter to clergy, I hope it’s common ground that we’re part of a Church that’s called to real repentance for the lack of welcome and acceptance extended to gay and lesbian people as children of God. We haven’t listened well to the quiet, hurting voices, nor to those called to celibacy, nor to clergy who have lovingly and sensitively ministered to gay couples through the years.
The second thing we need to acknowledge is that we’re part of a culture that’s chaotically confused about sex. Sex has been outrageously commodified, pornography is ordinary viewing for teenagers and an addiction for very many adults, trafficking is a global business, prostitution is commonplace, sexually explicit films and TV are far beyond anything Mary Whitehouse could have imagined in her wildest nightmare. Multiple sexual partners are wreaking havoc on relational stability, sexual infections are massively increasing, hardly anyone is a virgin on their wedding night, and so on. And in the middle of all that we’re trying steadily to work out a theologically coherent approach to same sex marriage.
But I think in a sense, we’re doing this on behalf of the nation. We’re trying to be responsible. We’re trying to grapple with a serious moral issue in a way that models openness and respect. OK, we’re messing up ”“ badly. But we’re trying to discover how much we can agree on, and to learn how to ”˜disagree well’ on what we can’t agree on. And then to decide how we can, or can’t, live with that spectrum of honest belief. The rest of society doesn’t do its moral reasoning like that. It prefers soundbites, three minutes of furious argument, and a YouGov poll.
Read it all and you may read a bit about Bishop Pritchard there.
The money quote is this:
[blockquote] “And in the middle of all that we’re trying steadily to work out a theologically coherent approach to same sex marriage.” [/blockquote]
Errr, why, good bishop?
The bible says nothing whatsoever about same sex marriage. Its position on marriage is quite clear – it is between a man and a woman.
It is therefore hardly surprising that your speech says nothing whatsoever about getting in touch with what Christ taught on any issue, or about the need to learn from and put into practice the teachings of Holy Scripture.
You may run a very large diocese (as you proudly tell us on your web-site) but it is in slow and inexorable decline, like most other dioceses in CofE. Looking at the contents of your speech (and even more at what is NOT in your speech) it is easy to see why.