You may have a same-gender civil marriage and blessing in your church provided an Episcopal priest does not officiate at the marriage itself or sign the marriage license and the Book of Common Prayer is not used.
Over the last couple of days there’s been a series of statements issued by groups in London, Rome and Mecca from representatives of Christian churches and denominations and representatives of the Muslim World League.
Andrea Useem thinks she may have identified the wellspring of Barack Obama’s broadly acknowledged rhetorical brilliance. It isn’t so much that he is superb speaker but rather that he seems to have an instinctive ability to speak the patois of American Civil religion.
Over this past week, we’ve been running articles written by different deputies to this coming General Convention about the proposed Anglican Covenant that is to be part of the discussion at the coming Lambeth Conference and, most likely, the next General Convention. We’ve collected all the links into a single post for your convenience.
Bishop Tom Shaw, of the Diocese of Massachusetts has issued a statement of deep concern as a result of his unpublicized recent visit to Zimbabwe and the Anglicans worshiping in that part of the world. The concerns are urgent enough that Bishop Shaw is calling on Congress to ask the UN to intervene.
There is a report from the Diocese of Pittsburgh that should Bishop Duncan be brought to a church court for his actions, the Standing Committee of his diocese intends to continue his policies. Additionally there is a report that the Bishop has now been granted land from the Diocesan trust for his retirement home continued employment even if he is deposed.
I have little doubt that the covenant will be accompanied by some means of addressing membership and issues of inclusion and exclusion. The stunning failure of past drafts to produce a widely acceptable section or appendix on canonical provisions concerning inclusion or exclusion does not mean that that effort will not go on or that it will not be part of the final product.
O Lord, bright as is the sun, and the sky, and the clouds; green as are the leaves and the fields; sweet as is the singing of the birds; we know that they are not all, and we will not take up with a part of the whole.