{"id":9159,"date":"2010-06-29T16:43:32","date_gmt":"2010-06-29T20:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/?p=9159"},"modified":"2010-06-29T16:43:32","modified_gmt":"2010-06-29T20:43:32","slug":"apparently-the-diocese-of-niagara-is-too-theologically-conservative-for-some","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/apparently-the-diocese-of-niagara-is-too-theologically-conservative-for-some\/","title":{"rendered":"Apparently, the Diocese of Niagara is too theologically conservative for some"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Niagara Anglican<\/a> (page 8):<\/p>\n

Have the gays of the Diocese achieved their goals? Not really. Okay, let\u2019s be honest, not at all. The Diocese of Niagara has agreed upon and published the Niagara Rite of Blessing of Civil marriage. Right? No, actually. This document is to be used at the discretion of individual priests to bless, for example, a gay couple already married in the civil courts. Priests have been able to bless most anything (such as furniture, hymn books, pets) and anyone (such as those going on a long trip) so why was all this effort necessary to enable them to bless same-sex unions? Furthermore, is anyone performing this rite?<\/p>\n

But there now is a movement towards the development of a liberal breakaway group. More walking. This concept has matured enough to reach my generally un-political ears. Here is a paraphrase of a recent email:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe leaders of the Diocese are doing their best but what’s happening is that many genuine seekers of God’s Spirit are being left on the side of the church’s road-way simply because they are homosexual. After years of unsuccessful struggle to make the Anglican Church of Canada inclusive, there is now a very serious call to begin an alternative (liberal) church that expresses no protest, politics, or need for property. They are people who simply want to worship God together by sharing the scriptures and breaking bread in justice and love.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This tends to confirm my suspicion that General Synod, by neither approving nor condemning the blessing of same-sex unions, has stirred discontent in both conservative and liberal camps. While the stubbornly optimistic are prepared to soldier on under the guise of compromise, the more strident, hot-blooded \u2013 if I may be allowed such an oxymoron \u2013 Anglicans are still straining in opposite directions.<\/p>\n

So while I find it difficult to image a more liberal diocese than Niagara, clearly for some, Niagara is simply too orthodox. For how many, I wonder? Between 3 and 5? More than 5? Surely not more than 10. Will they try to take their buildings with them? Will the diocese find itself in the peculiar position of suing liberals as well as conservatives while trying to persuade the apathetic centre to continue paying for lawyers?<\/p>\n

The parish I attend has a potting shed that it might be willing to rent to a breakaway Anglican hyper-liberal cartel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Niagara Anglican (page 8): Have the gays of the Diocese achieved their goals? Not really. Okay, let\u2019s be honest, not at all. The Diocese of Niagara has agreed upon and published the Niagara Rite of Blessing of Civil … 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":20,"footnotes":""},"categories":[110],"tags":[2111,1386],"class_list":["post-9159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diocese-of-niagara","tag-diocese-of-niagara","tag-same-sex-blessings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9159","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=9159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}