This week the Church of England has done something very publicly that no other official institution in England could legally do: it rejected a highly qualified person for a crown appointed office solely on the basis of his sexuality. The Guardian asks how long this can go on.
Judge Joseph L. Tauro of United States District Court in Boston says the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. He says that the Federal government cannot cause the state of Massachusetts discriminate it’s own citizens by denying gay couples who have married in that state from receiving federal benefits.
Simon Sarmiento explains how the Archbishop’s amendment to the Draft Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure, includes the principle of “statutory transfer” which was explicitly voted down by Synod in 2008 and dropped by the revision committee last year.
Two statements about the life and legacy of Justice Thurgood Marshall. One by the Bishop of Washington and another by his son.
The Anglican Communion Office has announced two new members of the Standing Committee, and gives us a glimpse of how the Anglican Communion might operate should the Covenant pass.
Laurie Goodstein and David Halbfinger report on the history of denial and distraction that characterized the official response of the Curia to the instances of
Slavery is no more forbidden by Scripture than by the Constitution, but is permitted by both; and I can not but think that modesty and good sense should have taught all citizens and all Christians who could not see the reason of the permission, to take it on the authority of the Constitution of their country and the Rule of their Faith, without an appeal to a higher law.
“I just really want everyone to know, there is no ‘us or them,’ no throwaway people. Nobody is beyond the grasp of God’s grace. And that we are simply there to love people.”
Sin is not just lifting oneself up too high (as in the case of Satan, the rebellious angels, or Adam and Eve), it is also failing to lift oneself up high enough. Many LGBT people have been taught to hide in the shadows and that God hates us. Is it any wonder, then, that so many LGBT people suffer from a toxic degree of self-hate and shame?
Breaking The Rev. Canon Dr. Jane Alison Shaw has been appointed as the next dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.