The Blog of the Provost of St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow
I wonder what is the first thought that comes into your head when you open an invitation and find yourself invited to a wedding.
Do you say a wee prayer of thanksgiving for the couple?
Maybe you do.
Do you rejoice that two people have discovered that they love one another and give thanks for the places in your own life where you have known love too?
Maybe you do.
Or, upon reading that invitation, is the first thought that comes into your mind, [Read more...]
The Rt Rev Paul Marshall, bishop of the Diocese of Bethlehem in the USA has released a set of pastoral guidelines for how clergy are to undertake same-sex blessings in that diocese. That is worthy of a cheer in itself. However, it is worth reading through the guidelines to see exactly what they say. (See here).
The key words at the moment in the American church are that bishops are able to provide “Generous Provision” regarding pastoral and liturgical ministry to same-sex couples. That is to be compared with the “Gracious Restraint” which the bishops in Scotland are currently exercising – restraint which seems to me to be rather less than generous.
Compare and contrast:
From the Diocese of Bethlehem – “….Ordinarily, a bishop presides when one of the parties being joined is a priest or deacon….”
From the Scottish Episcopal Church – “…The College [of Bishops] recognises that very different views exist within the Scottish Episcopal Church as to the appropriateness of informal blessings by clergy of same-sex unions. It is the practise of the individual Bishops neither to give official sanction to such informal blessings, nor to attend them personally…”
Apart from the question of whether that statement was a truthful one, it is that last bit about not attending blessings (or we were subsequently told, Civil Partnership ceremonies) which has always seemed to me to be by far the most personally offensive thing about the last statement that the bishops mader. No international request asked our bishops to refrain from even attending such a ceremony. It is our own special, spiteful, Scottish Moratorium. It implies that a bishop would be tainted by being present at the happiest day of two other people’s lives. That is nasty theology and is unworthy of anyone. It also does not seem to deal with the possibility that a bishop might want to attend the nuptials of his or her beloved gay child.
Our congregations deserve better provision than our bishops have made. Our bishops’ families deserve to be treated with more respect and more love too.
The Bishop of Bethlehem shows that it need not be this way and demonstrates what not only what generosity is but also what graciousness really means.
The Canadian Anglicans came within a hair’s breadth of allowing dioceses to allow same-sex blessing yesterday. The measure was passed decisively by laity and clergy and then defeated by a couple of votes in their House of Bishops. Rather an uncomfortable situation for one or two bishops, I would guess.
It rather highlights something which I’ve thought for a while. These debates are, on the face of it, about gay people. Those who are opposed to same-sex blessings think that in their hearts that this is really about “the authority of scripture”. However, the real issue which we are debating now has long since moved on. What we are trying to work out is how we square an episcopal system with a synodical one. If you look at the comments of people on blogs and elsewhere when something like this comes up in a synod, it is almost impossible to conclude that there is a strong belief for many Anglicans that the Holy Spirit is involved in synodical government. [The pneumatology of the blogsphere is appallingly lax, if you want to be technical about it].
There are those who believe that the Scottish Episcopal Church is an episcopally ordered church. It isn’t of course, it is a synodically ordered church in which bishops have to find their place. What that place is, is at the heart of so much of this debate, and we share that debate with others in the Anglican Communion. Do theology, doctrine, liturgy, truth etc flow from the bishops into the church? Of course not, but we have yet to decide their role and it must be horrible for them to live through this time.
I’ve seen with my own eyes, and heard with my own ears, what is happening to bishops through all of this, and it is not pretty. The discrepancy between what can sometimes be said in public and what can be said in private is stark and ugly and leaves them vulnerable and, I suspect miserable. It is hard not to pity them, and pity is such a violent emotion.
Sometimes, when it seems as though some bishops have become incapable of telling truths even about things that matter little, we need to remember the pressures on them. No wonder they ask us to pray for them every day.
Recent Comments