UPDATED 9/25: George Conger reports: “The outcry over the Bishop of Cashel & Ossory’s support for an Irish dean’s gay civil union has forced the bishop to skip the consecration of the Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry.”
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As a result of the news that the Dean of a Church of Ireland Cathedral is living in a registered same-sex partnership, clergy in that Anglican Province say they are unwilling to wait for a consensus to develop and call for a more immediate response from their Archbishop.
“In separate statements, the Rev Neville Hughes from the rural parishes of Mullabrack and Kilcluney near Markethill and the Rev Alan McCann of the urban parish of Woodburn in Carrickfergus rejected the primate of all Ireland’s call to halt discussion about the Rev Tom Gordon’s civil partnership.
On Tuesday the archbishop read a statement to the church’s influential standing committee appealing for space to allow the bishops to decide a way forward.
He asked the committee to “curtail” discussion of the partnership, and added: “In many parts of the church, the matter is seen as controversial. In such a situation it is important that great care be taken in anything that may be said.”
However, amid claims from both supporters and opponents of gay Anglican clergy that there has been a lack of leadership on the issue, there is growing evidence that at least some in the church are not prepared to wait for the bishops — who are divided on the issue — to agree a way forward.”
More here.
One Irish rector has asked if it’s now time for the Evangelicals in Ireland to turn to an Anglican Mission in Ireland as a solution saying that he can not accept oversight from a bishop who is not “orthodox in this matter”.