Wangaratta’s bishop has become the country’s first senior Anglican cleric publicly to recognise that the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Australia has become inevitable.
Bishop John Parkes ”“ a former barrister ”“ has told the Chronicle that he believes the country has “grown up” and that the federal government will be bound within a relatively short time to change the Marriage Act to enable people of the same gender to marry.
He admits that the challenge of such a move for religious faiths will be complex ”“ but does not believe that gay marriage will become “a betrayal of the Gospel or the end of the world”.
The Diocese of Wangaratta, by the way, was once in the context of Australian Anglicanism what the dioceses of Eau Claire, Fond du Lac, Springfield and Quincy once were in the context of the Episcopal Church. Facilis descensus and all that …