{"id":3963,"date":"2009-04-29T16:14:17","date_gmt":"2009-04-29T21:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anglicansamizdat.wordpress.com\/?p=3963"},"modified":"2009-04-29T16:14:17","modified_gmt":"2009-04-29T21:14:17","slug":"a-homosexual-priest-appeals-to-rowan-williams-for-justification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/a-homosexual-priest-appeals-to-rowan-williams-for-justification\/","title":{"rendered":"A homosexual priest appeals to Rowan Williams for justification"},"content":{"rendered":"

A homosexual Anglican priest and his catamite draw comfort from Rowan Williams<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Interview with Greg Lisby, Rector at Church of the Ascension, Cranston<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Kiersten Marek:<\/strong> My first question is: I recently read this article in The Atlantic called “The Velvet Reformation,” about Bishop Rowan Williams and the question of whether the Anglican church can become open to gay marriage. The article referenced an essay by Rowan Williams called “The Body’s Grace” in which Williams talked about how intimate relationships are about experiencing grace and that this grace should be accepted as part of both gay and straight relationships. He wrote:<\/p>\n

“Grace, for the Christian believer, is a transformation that depends in large part on knowing yourself to be seen in a certain way: as significant, as wanted.”<\/p>\n

I wonder if you can comment on how this idea strikes you, both as a church leader and as a partner in a gay relationship.<\/p>\n

Fr. Greg Lisby:<\/strong> To know you are significant and wanted -isn’t that what we all desire? In the lore of creation, found in the book of Genesis, God said it is good for a human to have a partner (it isn’t until the second creation story that it specifically says male and female). God desires for us to be in relationship with another. It is in relationship, whether intimate or not, that we can glimpse the reality of God’s presence. So, whether it is an opposite-sex or same-sex relationship, all possess the potential for manifesting God’s presence. When that presence is realized, acknowledged, then the sense of worth and vulnerability that opens us to God’s grace is made possible. This, I believe, is what Archbishop Williams is getting at.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The whole interview is worth reading, if only to reinforce why the Anglican Church in North America has become an international laughing stock. Of particular interest in the section above is the fact that, no matter what public face Rowan Williams puts on the crisis tearing his church apart, his private views on homosexuality are being used by gay priest activists to justify their behaviour.<\/p>\n

Going hand in hand with this is the trivialising of the meaning of Christian grace. Rather than its true meaning of God’s unmerited favour, it has been turned into the nugatory, “to know you are significant and wanted”, <\/em>and is used in this context as a justification for homosexual activity; <\/em>a ghastly perversion of a central truth of the Gospel for no other reason than self-indulgent antinomianism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A homosexual Anglican priest and his catamite draw comfort from Rowan Williams: Interview with Greg Lisby, Rector at Church of the Ascension, Cranston Kiersten Marek: My first question is: I recently read this article in The Atlantic called “The Velvet … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15],"tags":[2030,2031],"class_list":["post-3963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglican","category-anglican-angst","tag-anglican","tag-anglican-angst"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}