An Anglican church in Ottawa may soon be the second in Canada to bless same-sex marriages.
Bishop John Chapman plans to ask the Canadian House of Bishops next week if he can develop an appropriate rite, then designate one parish — possibly Saint John the Evangelist on Somerset Street — to offer blessings to gay couples already married in a civil ceremony.
He told several hundred people gathered at Christ Church Cathedral yesterday for an annual synod, or general meeting, that he wants to take it slowly.
“We have talked about this issue since I was a seminary student in the mid-seventies. We must ‘experience’ the issue as a church before clarity of heart and mind might be attained. For this reason, I hope to proceed, but slowly and cautiously.”
This is one reason my old parish of St George’s (three blocks from Parliament) recently voted by 83% to affiliate with ANiC and Southern Cone.
If the Barbadians who were so numerous there 30 years ago are still there, I’m sure they held everyone else to account for faithfulness to the Word.
St George’s is the [i]only[/i] downtown Ottawa church of [i]any[/i] denomination that is vibrant and growing. Do ya think it might have something to do with preaching and teaching, and [i]living[/i] the Word of God?
As for the others, God “gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own devices.” Ps 81:12
Oh for pity’s sake, if you are going to sin, DO IT, and be done with it. Sidling up to sin, nudging it with soft noses toward the bedroom, Advancing cautiously and with a tender diffidence toward abasement, as if this pastoral caution will alter the nature of the act, is all by itself, a corruption of corruption. Larry
[blockquote]We must ‘experience’ the issue as a church before clarity of heart and mind might be attained.[/blockquote]
Isn’t this the problem in a nutshell? We have to experience the issue in order to be clear about it. Experience, then, would seem to trump revelation – if revelation is even acknowledged at all.
God is not going to “okay” this.