Comments on: An Announcement

By: Anne Gadsden

Anne Gadsden — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:30:29 +0000

I am an ex-piskie, but still with fond feelings for the church I was raised in. Part of the reason I left was because in the 1970’s, key decade for me, the Piskie church didn’t have room for women in its clergy, alter servers or choirs. I felt excluded then, and I sympathise with the gay christians who are feeling excluded now. I have seen Gene Robinson in interviews, and he comes across as a warm, caring and deeply spiritual man. I would have loved to come to hear him speak in the flesh, and I am glad that he is being given these opportunities to speak.

By: takecon

takecon — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 17:59:45 +0000

Hi, I learned from a friend that Gene Robinson will be at St Marys on 3 August.
I’m a gay guy who is a member of St Marys. I’ve not been attending services for some time. However my recent attendance at a Catholic Funeral Mass awoke something n me – something spiritual – a need. Also a BBC Documentary this week re GAFCON shocked me greatly!
As far as I’m concerned it’s my relationship with God, Christ and the Holy Spirit thats key.
I’ll be at St Marys on the 3rd

By: Mo

Mo — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:17:33 +0000

new to this but would like to add a comment.If I were in Kelvin’s shoes(black of course) I would also have invited Gene.He is after all a senior figure in the Anglican communion.He is in our city, should we not welcome a fellow Christian brother to share in the worship of Jesus?Yes he is gay but what do we know of the man himself.I for one have never met him so do not feel in a position to pass comment.Kelvin I feel has done the right thing, he also must know it would cause discussion debate and controversy and some people will be upset by this. Only Gene and his family know what pain anguish deliberation and prayer brought him to where he is now in his life.If we are all to be prevented from moving forward from our past then what hope is there for us.This denies God’s forgiveness.I know this doesn’t work if you totally deny someone their sexuality and believe that homosexuality is inhherently wrong.I believe in ;fidelity, honesty love truth and I think we should meet Gene and hear what he has to say

I dont know if any of this will be put on the blog but here are some thoughts i had on not just gene but people who people perceive to be different from them

I am me
Can’t you see, behind the mask of your certainty
The person who lives, breathes, thinks, feels, loves, not their own reality but yours
Can’t you see the small me dying within
Each day I lose more dignity
I compromise
I disappear
To make you secure in your reality
Why do you fear me so much?
Perhaps I threaten the status quo,
The smugness of self-righteousness
And yet I did not choose this for myself
It is my life
My walk with God
God knows me and loves me
He has held out His hand to catch me
When I fall
His gentleness and love sustain me
When human hearts turn cold against me
God is there in the wee small hours
With no T.V. or camera crew
Can’t you give me the time of day to listen to what I have to say
God will know if my heart is true and judge me on the last day

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:53:23 +0000

> Comment moved to here.

By: Kimberly

Kimberly — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:16:26 +0000

> Comment moved to here.

By: Steven McQuitty

Steven McQuitty — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 09:17:22 +0000

Dear Kelvin

I would like to compliment you on the quality of the debate within your blog. Most people who post here seem to do so with respect for the views of others.

I am a presbyterian from Portadown in Northern Ireland (boo hiss) but do not have a church background and only became a Christian in my early/mid 20s. I stumbled upon your site via Bishop David’s blog.

I am not sure were I stand on the whole same sex debate within the Anglican communion. My gut (which may be wrong) feeling is that homosexuality may not be God’s choice for human relationships.

What I want to know is, do you think that you could be wrong in your (apparent) feeling that same sex unions are of equal value in the eyes of God? Do you, for example, consider them to be as legitimate an expression of love as marriage between a man and a woman?

If you accept you could be wrong how does that affect your attitude to the debate?

Bishop Gene does not seem to feel he could be wrong and as such his attitude, from my very limited knowledge of same, can appear to be rather triumphalist, i.e., lacking humility.

If anything we are ALL called to humility and the tone of some of the debate (on both sides) is often anything but.

Thanks and keep up the excellent work in providing this useful forum for debate.
[Discussion on this comment moved to here.]

Steven

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:49:52 +0000

I had my own experience of Glass style extremists when living in University Halls. One of the Wardens told me that you can’t be a Buddhist and a Christian (probably true), you can’t be a Muslim and a Christian (ditto) and then followed it up with :

“You can’t be a Catholic and a Christian”

Don’t know if it’s changed, but the internet server used to block Stonewall’s site as unsuitable too.

By: PamB

PamB — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:08:04 +0000

Yes, Glass did protest against Runcible, but the occasion I was recalling was in the late 60s, when even one verse of “Ye who own the faith of Jesus” (sung of course to Daily Daily) would bring him out from under his stone. This, remember, was the man who stood in St Peter’s Square in Rome carrying a banner reading “No Pope Here”!

By: julio

julio — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:13:39 +0000

I note your answer to Carlos Iradier.

It must presumably follow that, being conscious of our own ignorance, we should all tread carefully, alive to the possibilty of our own error and to the possiblity that the views of others, with whom we disagree, may ultimately be a truer reflection of God’s knowledge!

By: kelvin

kelvin — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:05:25 +0000

I think Glass was protesting about Runcie, but I was not here. Others may be able to give more details or even photographs.

The answer to Carlos, Julio is that not knowing everything that God knows is a consequence of possessing genuine free will.

We have the chance in every moment to choose the good and every such choice we make prefigures the ecstacy of heaven.