Comparing and contrasting the decision by Washington National Cathedral to perform same-sex marriages and the University of the South’s decision to do so only if the bishop in the place where the couple lives approves.
SCG writes on the blog “Wake Up and LIVE.”
I was delighted to open up to my Facebook page and to see the announcement that the Washington National Cathedral, the site of so many state celebrations and funerals for presidents and a major tourist attraction in the nation’s capital, will be making use of the new blessings for same-sex couples in the Episcopal Church. …For Episcopalians such as myself, this is a momentous occasion. To have such a visible symbol of the church open its doors so completely for the LGBT community is very hopeful and encouraging.
Especially in light of another story I read about involving the chapel at one of the Episcopal seminaries and how it is handling the new blessing rite.
The University of the South, more commonly called Sewanee, is an Episcopal university and home to All Saints’ Chapel, an equally stately, beautiful, Gothic cathedral. Sewanee’s School of Theology, which produces the Education for Ministry program, is one of the preferred seminaries for postulants from the southeast. When the General Convention overwhelmingly adopted A049, the resolution to allow for the same-sex blessings, Sewanee was faced with a dilemma. While located in Tennessee, it’s governing authority is a chancellor, a position that rotates among bishops representing 28 dioceses of the Episcopal Church. Many of those bishops were among the 41 who voted against A049, including the now rogue Bishop Lawrence of South Carolina, and Bishop Samuel Johnson Howard of Florida, Sewanee’s chancellor. Now, they had to make a decision: would Sewanee allow a gay or lesbian couple, who meets the basic requirements to request use of the All Saints’ Chapel for a wedding, the opportunity to have their union blessed there? Commence hand-wringing now.
“An absolute yes or an absolute no was just not possible,” John McCardell, Jr., vice-chancellor and president, said. The college feared its chapel could become a sort of Las Vegas for blessings of gay unions — an end-run for couples whose bishops wouldn’t permit the rite in their own diocese.(“Going to the Chapel?” by Libby Nelson, Inside Higher Ed., Dec. 19, 2012).
Stop right there. End run? A ‘sort of Las Vegas’ for LGBT couples?? Are they serious???
Yes, obviously, they were serious. Seriously afraid of what might happen if they were to open up the use of the chapel for LGBT couples who are affiliated with the school.
I read that statement and I was appalled.