• Dedication Sunday Sermon

    This time last year, I was away in the United States on sabbatical. I was travelling about from place to place and particularly from church to church. And I was looking for something

    I realised afterwards that I was looking for what is over the rainbow. There’s something about the New World and particularly the West Coast of the new world that makes people a bit like that.

    I was looking for the next best thing in the church. Looking for what was new, exciting, fresh. So much of what happens in that part of the world comes to us in the end. I was looking to get ahead of the curve.

    As I went from congregation to congregation I started to see patterns in what I was finding and gradually, particularly since I’ve come back, I’ve been making sense of all I saw.

    One particular pattern emerged. (more…)

3 responses to “Church and Civil Partnerships”

  1. Margaret of the Sea of Galilee Avatar
    Margaret of the Sea of Galilee

    Watching, watching – exclusive language in hymn and liturgy so far…not encouraging. Although the Moderator’s purple spectacles are a hopeful sign.

  2. Robert Kirk Avatar
    Robert Kirk

    to give items of undergarments equal status – should one not also use ‘underpants’?

  3. […] As observed in the Thinking Anglicans’ post, the substance of the Scottish guidance is very similar to that of the Church of England House of Bishops which was issued in February this year: it is more prescriptive than the CofE Declaration and appears to take a stronger line on blessings after marriage and civil partnerships, an area on which the CofE’s position has been less than clear; although some issues of detail are different[4], both take a very similar approach to clergy entering into same-sex marriage and to the position on ordinands.  Likewise, both have a relaxed approach to clergy within civil partnerships, although in May 2013 Kelvin Holdsworth noted: […]

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