The Church’s real problem, however, is not the hypocrisy of closeted prelates. It’s that so many priests are perfectly content to solemnise homosexual marriages in church and will indeed be “creative” in finding ways to do so.
How will Archbishop Justin Welby respond? “I think the church has reacted by fully accepting that it’s the law, and should react on Saturday by continuing to demonstrate in word and action, the love of Christ for every human being,” he told the Guardian in best Rev J C Flannel mode. Uh-huh. Oh, and there will be “structured conversations” to help resolve the problem.
Here’s my prediction. As of today, pro-gay clergy will begin to unpick Cameron’s “triple lock” banning parishes from holding gay weddings; during the next Parliament it will cease to exist. Priests who want to marry same-sex couples, or indeed marry their own gay lovers, will just do it. Anglo-Catholic and Evangelical parishes that reject the whole notion won’t be forced to host such ceremonies, but both these wings of the C of E are moving in a liberal direction, and in the long run demographic change will finish the job.
Damian Thompson may be exaggerating somewhat, but alas, I fear that his take on the miserable state of the CoE is largely correct. The CoE has indeed lost the power, or inclination, to draw a line in the sand, as he rightly says. However, my hunch is that it actually lost both of those things quite a while ago. For it is, after all, a national church, by law established. And by its very nature it seems utterly incapable of becoming truly counter-cultural, in the way that is so necessary these days, in a cynical, de-Christianized, neo-pagan culture like England.
David Handy+
(As an American, I dislike and distrust state churches anyway)
[This] one wonders if the episcopate of the Church of England believes there actually are issues on which ones eternal salvation depends.
Perhaps a more honest view might be that the C of E’s complicity in Henry VIII’s murderous divorces and remarriages pretty much changed the church forever.
That would be a less honest view, Dan Crawford.
The Church of England has gone down this road because it has abandoned orthodox Christianity. It had a choice about whether or not to compromise with modern liberalism, and it has been receiving warnings since at least the 1970s, but it has forged ahead regardless. Like TEC in USA and ACoC in Canada it is paying the price.
This is very sad for other Anglicans to see, even though CofE, TEC and ACoC are only a small fraction of the Anglicans in the world – unfortunately the rest of us have had to discipline them and that process is ongoing. No sane person rejoices over these things, but approaches it with godly sorrow.