Many believed that marriage is part of core doctrine. No individual church can change core doctrine. Many felt that the expansion of who may be married on our part was a change in church doctrine. Therefore it was in part on that basis that many felt that we had overstepped our authority as a province. I didn’t agree with that but I respect that that was the understanding of many. For me, marriage is not part of core doctrine. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is core doctrine. The doctrine of who Jesus Christ is ”“ wholly God and wholly human ”“ is doctrine. The articles of the Creeds are doctrine. The Holy Scriptures and the Old and New Testament are core doctrine. Other sections of the Chicago”“ Lambeth Quadrilateral are core doctrine. Marriage is a sacramental rite, it is a solemn and sacred matter of faith and practice. But it is not core doctrine.
Their action was surgical, specific, and mediated. Because we are seen as having deviated from doctrine of the Anglican Communion, for three years we are suspended on ambassadorial and leadership positions.
What the Primates said applies to the Primates. It does not apply to ACC.
“For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ his mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. Ephesians 5:29-32 (ESV)
Very interesting following the evolving statements of Michael Curry:
1. Initially he did the standard liberal toys out of the pram “shan’t – you’re not the boss of me, you can’t tell me what to do – WAAAAH” vent in an interview in Canterbury.
2. Then there was the passive-aggressive “we deserved it, but we are martyrs and will bear our cross for 3 years” act.
3. Finally above we are now seeing a mixture of the two in what is clearly a strategy worked out with Bishop Tengatenga which can be summarised as: “you Primates are irrelevant, we pay the Chair of the ACC, and he will do what we say so we are going and we will be voting, Tengatenga says so – so there – what are you going to do about it? [Stick out tongue to Primates]”
And note the deliberate redefinition of gay marriage as not a matter of “doctrine” and so open for TEC under this new definition [which presumably their payola man Tengatenga will support] to continue to advocate and vote on gay marriage etc at ACC and elsewhere, notwithstanding the Primates’ Communique.
All pretty childish, petulant and dishonest and what one expects from the plastic-elastic church.
Pageantmaster, I have given a lot of thought to Michael Curry’s positions for some years. He was my bishop before I left TEC. I think that basically he and the rest of the TEC liberals are new gnostics. They are sure that their reading of the Bible reveals new truths that previous generations of church fathers and scholars completely missed. When he speaks of this, he emphasizes that his reading of the Bible finds this new meaning.
#3 Thanks Katherine for your insight.
The assertion that writing takes its meaning not from the expression of the writer, but from the reading of the reader is a strange back to front way of reading scripture. It is ‘my reading’ of my truth in this strange pluriform world view.
Presumably Presiding Bishop Curry considers that God is incapable of expressing Himself clearly in the written Word without the secret gnostic inner knowledge possessed by the enlightened ones – such as PB Curry, who are tasked with interpreting it.
The Episcopal Church is for the Illuminati – who knew?