Quick question about the recent House of Bishops statement.
Two gay people marry.
Then, intrigued by the love of individual Christians for one another, or liking the liturgy, or whatever - they start going to Church. They are struck with love for Jesus Christ, and become Christians.
One of them has a call to ministry. But people of the same sex, lawfully married in this country, are not allowed to be ordained. Even if they promise to abstain from sexual relations. Even if they become convinced that, in fact, they were in the wrong and repent. (I'm not saying anything about rightness or wrongness - go with me here, for a minute).
And it seems to me that, given the current rules regarding ordination, if they were so convinced that one of them had a calling to the priesthood, they would have no choice. They would have to get divorced.
And have a Civil Partnership instead.
This isn't going to work for very long, is it?
It could be quite simple: the Church of England recognises marriage as valid only between a man and a woman. Therefore a marriage between two people of the same sex is not considered a valid marriage by the Church of England. Therefore there is no need to divorce as in the C of E's eyes the couple are not married. Therefore whether or not clergy of the C of E enter into a same sex marriage is irrelevant. The important thing is that clergy in a civil partnership are celibate. Or have I missed something...?
ReplyDeleteI hope the Methodist Church doesn't make such a pig's ear of it
ReplyDeleteAnd what if after the government consultation process there will be no more civil partnerships? No more legal security, no more pension rights? This toothpaste will not go back in the tube.
ReplyDeleteStumbled on this from Thinking Anglicans... I read today that Washington State is converting all civil unions into marriages http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2022921079_marriageconversionxml.html
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