10 responses to “So, let me get this right…”
-
I think you have understood if correctly (or at least as fully as it can be understood).
This just shows how confused the church has become, or how keen it is to tie itself into the proverbial knots to appease both progressives and traditionalists.
Either way, this position is both absurd and intellectually unsustainable.
-
Kelvin can I ask what submissions you are referring to, is there a new one?
-
I think that, once marriage law is passed, current civil partnerships can convert to marriage by filling form, etc. Don’t think they said what happens if the couple want a religious marriage – or did I miss that?
If our churches persist in saying no to marriage, wouldn’t it be better to do the blessing after they’ve converted their civil status – as in some countries where every marriage is a civil ceremony, and any religious service is done afterwards
I hope everyone has completed the most recent consultation paper -
I think that the church wants to have its cake and eat it too. It wants everyone to be happy, and this is probably the best way that it knows to do this.
Is it ridiculous? Of course.
-
There is to be a new one. I’ve not seen it. I understand that the position that the Faith and Order Board is holding to is that “church teaching” is what Canon 31 says – that and nothing else and therefore we are doctrinally against change.
Is that not the case?
-
So far as I understand it, the SEC has not moved in its position since the first response at all.
The first response included this:
Question 10: Do you agree that the law in Scotland should be changed to allow same sex marriage?
The Canons of the Scottish Episcopal Church (Canon 31) state that the doctrine of the Church is that marriage is ‘a physical, spiritual and mystical union of one man and one woman created by their mutual consent of heart, mind and will thereto, and as a holy and lifelong estate instituted of God’. In the light of that Canon, there is no current basis for agreeing that the law should be changed to view marriage as possible between two people of the same sex. -
The SEC’s last response was in line with what the current law was, indeed still is, this consultation asks a very different question. To which the answer ‘well it isn’t legal, so we can’t say’, (I paraphrase) can’t be the answer this time, can it?
Of course Canon 31 also states it is a “lifelong estate” but had clause 4 added at a later date to allow for divorce and remarriage.
-
-
I was watching the evidence to the Westminster parliamentary committees the other day. In all these things, even from churches which are prepared to be tentatively in favour, or declining to be opposed, what is missing from all the evidence is the human experience of joy and delight that actually characterises a true and good wedding, of any combination of partners. How can we get across the compelling and converting happiness when processes take the form they do?
-
Is there any way of getting hold of the board – of ordinary church members getting hold of it and making it listen?? I mean I know my approach tends to lack in subtlety what it makes up for in directness, but then, well, it is very direct.
-
Rosemary, of all the many beautiful sentences you have written, that is the very very best.
Previous Posts
-
Collating Fr James
To Hyndland this afternoon for the collation of Fr James Milne as Rector of St Bride’s Church. (For those who care about ecclesiastical arcaniana, a collation happens when the bishop is the sole patron of the charge, whilst an institution happens in almost all other cases). It was a splendid occasion. Over a hundred and…
-
To the synod office
To General Synod Office in Edinburgh yesterday, where I discovered lying prominently in the reception room (Room 1) an up to date copy of Scottish Field and a small pile of Scottish Fields for recent months. Can anyone confirm whether this is anything to do with the fact that the leader of the Scottish Tory…
-
HMS Pinafore – the Carl Rosa Opera, Theatre Royal, Glasgow
The libretto of HMS Pinafore has at its centre a character, in the form of Sir Joseph Porter, who has risen to a status far exceding his talent. There was a certain irony then in the casting of Mr John Savident who, though he looked the part, was wading way out of his depth and…
-
Biretta Watch – Snowy Day
Anyone who has read my 100 things knows that I wear a biretta when it is snowy. People sometimes ask me why. I tell them that it is to keep my head warm. This makes them laugh though I find it hard to understand why. People sometimes ask me whether I know how ridiculous it…
Leave a Reply