Anglican Samizdat

From here:

Members of the Anglican Diocese of Saskatoon recently voted to bless same-sex marriages, a policy that must still be approved by church bishops.

In this video Jim Comar – an Anglican man who is “married” to another man – notes that the Anglican Church has been “hampered by what we consider sin”. The entire human race is hampered by sin but, of course, that’s not what he meant. Comar is upset that if the church views his sexual activity as sinful, it puts a cramp in his style, so he wants the church to modify its teaching, freeing him to romp in unfettered homoerotic bliss. And it appears he is getting his wish.

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Has been published:

The Blessing of the Marriage

The people remain standing. The couple kneel, and the celebrant says one of the following prayers.

Most gracious God, we give you thanks for your tender love in sending Jesus Christ to come among us, to be born of a human mother, and to make the way of the cross to be the way of life. We thank you, also, for consecrating the union of two people in his name. By the power of your Holy Spirit, pour out the abundance of your blessing upon this couple. Defend them from every enemy. Lead them into all peace. Let their love for each other be a seal upon their hearts, a mantle about their shoulders, and a crown upon their foreheads. Bless them in their work and in their companionship; in their sleeping and in their waking; in their joys and in their sorrows; in their life and in their death. Finally, in your mercy, bring them to that table where your saints feast for ever in your heavenly home; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever.

Reading the liturgy reinforces the grotesqueness of calling a same sex union “marriage”.  It does violence to Mark 10:6-7, makes a mockery of marriage and a laughing-stock of the putative church.

A diocese that is unable to see such a cheap counterfeit for what it is, is no longer entitled to call itself a Christian church.

The Diocese of Montreal has a “Protocol for Use” of the rite for the blessing of Civil Marriage. All of which is a euphemism for blessing same-sex unions. You can read the “Protocols” on page 2 here:

‘The marriage vows should not be repeated’
There is an intimate relationship between the vows of marriage and prayers of blessing which may follow them, even when there is a considerable interval of time between the two events.

Nothing that is done in the blessing of a civil marriage should reflect negatively on the original exchange of vows. The blessing of a civil marriage is not a second marriage. The marriage vows should not be repeated.

It is pretty clear that the intent is to ratify in a Christian – or at least Anglican – setting the sexual union of same-sex partners. That liberals in the Anglican Church would like to actually marry same-sex couples is beyond doubt. They must think the timing is not quite right: that the average Montreal Anglican is not quite “ready”; that to do so would finally push parishioners over the edge; that conservatives haven’t quite all left yet. Thus, for the moment,  we have “Protocols of Use”.

So whatever you do, don’t repeat the marriage vows. I did once, but I think I got away with it; yes, this is a farce.

Just what we’ve all been waiting for:

Sexuality discernment statement released in French.
General Synod’s statement on sexuality discernment is now available in French. At the General Synod 2010 meeting, members met several times in small groups to discuss human sexuality. This statement is a report from these conversations and acknowledges the differing viewpoints on human sexuality within the church as well as members’ desire to stay in conversation.

This translation will mainly be of interest to Anglicans in the Diocese of Quebec – well, and Montreal, although Montreal is largely bilingual. The average age of a Diocese of Quebec Anglican is 75 and, as you can imagine, they’ve all been champing at the bit to talk about gay sex: now they can really get down to what interests them before shuffling off this mortal coil:

The Diocese of Quebec is all but dead, its bishop told the Canadian House of Bishop at their fall meeting in Niagara Falls, the Anglican Journal of Canada reports.

The Rt. Rev. Dennis Drainville said his diocese was “teetering on the verge of extinction” according to an account given by the church’s official newspaper.

Of the diocese’s 82 congregations, 50 were childless and 35 congregations had an average age of 75. These graying congregations often had no more than 10 people in church on Sundays, he said. “The critical mass isn’t there, there’s no money anymore,” he said.