by David Virtue
April 2, 2007
The churches of the Anglican Communion must be a safe place for gay and lesbian people, says the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams. One wishes the Anglican leader had the same concern for besieged orthodox Episcopalians.
Perhaps the ABC should spend some time in the U.S. (he has been invited often enough), and chat with orthodox parishes and their priests caught in revisionist dioceses. If he did, perhaps he might issue another edict. It could read: The Anglican Communion must be a safe place for Anglo-Catholic and Evangelical Parishes and their priests who are being enslaved and persecuted by revisionist bishops who hate them and want them to change their beliefs for The Episcopal Church's new religion.
Now that would be a word that would ricochet around the communion. There would be rejoicing in Africa, Asia and Latin America not to mention in dioceses like Florida, Pennsylvania and California. The raw naked truth is: it is not gays and lesbians who cannot find a "safe place" in The Episcopal Church, they have thousands of "safe" parishes; it is orthodox Episcopalians who are being hounded and harassed by bishops who want to broker a new pansexual religion that the orthodox want no part of.
4 comments:
what i am wondering is what is it that "orthodox" members want? I suppose I am on the other side of this debate ... but I have no desire to see anyone leave the church nor would I want to influence the way they worship. So what do Orthodox members want?
Nothing. They are - or were - happy. But others have come along wanting something. Gee - where do I begin? In my former church people have come wanting -
1) a pro-illegal immigrant prayer
2) a new Lord's Prayer (see previous post)
3) a gay marriage liturgy
4) a new BCP (OK - that was 30 years ago - but I'm still upset about it)
5) a unitarian as opposed to Trinitarian God.
6) a polytheistic set of gods as opposed to a Trinitarian God
(We should put the advocates of 5 and 6 in a closed together and let em fight it out)
7) a change to the gender of God. I am the first to agree that any assignation of gender to God is an anthropomorphization - but our relationship is as to a father not as to a mother - this is in the original Hebrew.
8) Changes to the Bible and to the Nicene Creed. There is a huge difference between "who was conceived by the Holy Ghost" and "concieved by the power of the Holy Ghost" - the second is obviously an effort to Unitarianize the Episcopal Church by allowing for the possibility that Jesus was a man - not the second person of the Trinity.
etc. etc.
So YardDog - what is it you who constantly demand change want? What's the end - peace on Earth? Save the Whales? Gay marriage?
What is it? Why change something - unless you are unhappy - and what is it you are unhappy over?
My original question was an attempt to understand what an Orthodox member of the church wanted ... I have, indeed, heard of most of the things on your list. People being people seek out their needs. And your list does represent some things I might agree with but again that was not what I was interested in understanding.
What does an orthodox church member want to see in his church today? ... not a list of the things they don't like.
I seek a home. That is to say acceptance for who and what I am. It's a big world. I'm not any more universal than you. I need place that is a home a liturgy that corresponds to my vision of the world - one that honors the English language of my ancestry - and the faith of the Nicene creed - traditional songs - a place that is quiet and contemplative - a place that is not afraid to be something rather than be nothing so as to offend nobody.
I don't expect you to find my parish acceptable to you - any more than I would a Muslim, a Jew, a Wiccan, or a Buddist. But as I accord them the right to find a place of happiness - so also I seek one for me.
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