I therefore provide you with the following pastoral guidelines:
–I urge you to encourage all couples, regardless of orientation, to follow the pattern of first being married in a secular service and then being blessed in The Episcopal Church. I will publicly urge all couples to follow this pattern.
–For now, the three rites approved for trial use under the pastoral direction of the bishop, adopted by resolution at the 2007 Diocesan Convention (see appendix), should be commended to all couples (again, regardless of orientation) to bless secular marriages.
–All marriages should be performed by someone in one of the secular categories set forth in California Family Code, section 400 (see appendix), noting that any person in the state of California can be deputized to perform civil marriages. The proper sphere for Episcopal clergy is the blessing portion of the marriage.
–The understanding of The Episcopal Church currently is that blessings are an extension of the pastoral office of the bishop. I ask that you continue to inform me of all same-sex blessings.
–Couples who have been married under the auspices of the California Supreme Court ruling must have the same pre-marriage counseling as that required of any couple seeking marriage or blessing of marriage in The Episcopal Church. This should be understood as an offering of the Church’s support for marriage.
“I urge Episcopalians, clergy and lay, to volunteer as Deputy Marriage Commissioners. There are over 4,000 civil same-sex marriages planned in a short period of time in the city of San Francisco alone and the city is asking for help in meeting demand. I intend to volunteer for this at my earliest opportunity. This would be one sign of affirmation for the Supreme Court ruling from our diocese. By city requirement, clergy will not be allowed to wear collars when presiding at secular marriages. ”
I find this simply astonishing. I don’t think Anglicans in other countries have yet understood how determined the left of TEC is that homosexuality is a positive good — to be celebrated and affirmed rather than tolerated. The consequences for traditional understandings of sexuality and marriage will be more profound than we can yet imagine. Christians may soon be facing a kind of social martyrdom.
Read it very carefully, from the standpoint of the process of your son’s marrying a lovely Christian female whom your family adores.
This bishop is destroying the entire idea of Christian marriage. Go have a secular wedding, and then head to church to have it blessed.
This is utter…well…I don’t know what to call it.
Amazing how quickly the California bishops are running to endorse a secular decision…oooppss…just THIS decision.
Frauds. Hirelings.
austin, I submit that we are already there.
Is this Windsor compliant? (okay, stop laughing)
Am I to understand that Bishop Andrus’s invitation to Lambeth will soon be withdrawn?
Obviously he is setting up for his next bald faced lie about same sex marriages in his diocese. He will do only “blessings”–leaving marriages to the state. His sin is compound, in any case. And his invittioin to Lambeth will stand. ABC adores such twisted paths. He can form a council or committee to study it for a decade or so, well into the new age of the appointment of the first Imam of Caterbury.
Somehow I see this as causing all kinds of social problems, particularly as marriages often involve parties from other denominations. There is something flim-flam sounding about the whole thing…Curioser and curioser…
#2
I couldn’t agree more — this Bishop that it is no longer God who joins together but the state — moreover he is saying that what the state does defines marriage for Christians
Quite how that theology can be made to agree with Jesus’ teaching in Mark 10 on marriage is beyond my understanding. There is no “what God has joined together” because all God gets to do is to bless what the almighty state has already done. I suppose when you throw out “God made them male and female” and “a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife” then the rest doesn’t really matter to you either.
And this man is charged with defending the faith delivered to him!!!
The Living Church has been running an online poll today on this question. There are just 38 votes at this time, but 84 percent are opposed to California churches blessing same-sex partners. The text:
Should California churches celebrate same-sex marriage ceremonies?
a. They should proceed as soon as it is legal.
b. They should wait until the California bishops decide.
c. They should wait until the November vote on a constitutional amendment.
d. They should wait until General Convention approves rites.
e. They should not conduct such ceremonies.
Go to livingchurch.org and vote!
Marriage to this bishop is about as sacred as changing oil in his car…considering how often he’s been through it himself.
Midwest, are you thinking of Beisner, or has Andrus also been on the marriage-go-round?
Quite obviously, the marriage vows repeated “before God and this company” are meaningless to some people; a mere formality; and that applies to some bishops as well. If you don’t really MEAN what you say, then DON’T SAY IT!
“The understanding of the Episcopal Church is currently”…
Man, that says it all. In 30 minutes it’ll be something else. What current is next is anyone’s guess. Dead fish go with the current, living ones go upstream.
I don’t know how to get rid of the pain in my head….
Same sex ‘weddings’ have been celebrated at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, for many, many years. So what if it’s against the canons, they won’t be enforced (UNLESS a diocese wants to depart TEC with the property the diocese members paid for themselves).