Quite often, Jesus talks about things that I don’t know much about. A man may have gone out to sow – but I know precious little about agriculture. A father may have said goodbye to a prodigal son but I know nothing about having a jealous brother. A young man may have been told not to look back from the plough – but my soft hands, have clearly never touched a plough in their life.
However in the Gospel today, Jesus does stray into an area where I know a thing or two.
He is talking about (more…)
I thought that what the government actually said was more of a “obviously with the current canon laws in place, the C of E and the Church in Wales won’t be able to opt in to marriage equality because their canon laws clearly state that marriage is between one man and one woman.”
To me the ultimate issue is with the churches and their canon laws that need to be changed, no?
I just saw this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20680924
What in the world is the government thinking?!
Here’s the original announcement – quite clear that it isn’t just about Canon Law. They really are trying to make it illegal for the C of E and Church in Wales to opt in.
The irony that that Department of Culture page is titled “Marriage For Everyone” absolutely knocks me down.
I think that this more than anything else that has happened in equal marriage legislation this year has a real chance of being ruled illegal under Article 9 of the Human Rights Convention.
Church of England clergy, and Church in Wales clergy, may take note of Giles Fraser’s suggestion: “So it will now be illegal for me to marry two people who live (with) each other. Now there is a cause worth going to prison for.” as report in the Independent.
Yes – I saw that tweet from Giles. Whilst supporting the sentiment, I suspect that he is going to have to work quite hard to find a judge willing to send him to prison for it.
Yes, bizarre is the right word!
When the Church in Wales was disestablished back in 1920 it retained its priveledges and responsibilities with regard to marriage.
So, parishioners’ absolute legal right to be married in the parish church remains, as does the automatic right of Church in Wales clergy to be able to conduct marriages by virtue of their ordination alone.
We recently amended our requirements for residence to stay in line with the CofE, while they were able to do it through General Synod we had to resort to a Private Bill.
It now seems there are to be no EXTRA hurdles required by these two Churches, other than the separate Acts of Parliament they would need to change their current practice following agreement of General Synod or Governing Body.
“if your denomination cannot or will not opt in then the time has come for you to stand up for what’s right. If you support equality, do something about it and show us what you are made of.” you not doing any more weddings until the SEC opts in then. Kelvin?
I think it quite likely that should the Scottish Episcopal Church chose not to opt into the coming legislation then I would come to be view that the time had come to stop signing marriage papers. That is not the same thing, of course, as stopping doing weddings.
I realised at during morning prayer yesterday that in the midst of Heathrow Hell, I had glimpsed a moment of the Christmas story. People were getting grumpy and cross with the airport staff, panic was starting to appear on faces belonging to those who knew they were not going to get home in time for…
The realisation dawns that my dog-collar shirts are mostly in transit. I have a small stock (that is, a stock, not a stock of other shirts – ie a thing, not a collection of things) which I can use stuffed beneath other garments to simulate the bedog-collared look but that lives in the realm of…
Well as of 9 am Thursday… The cat is in Cat Prison The car is in Edinburgh I am in Glasgow having escaped Heathrow Hell by booking a last-minute sleeper My luggage, last seen in Sweden may be in London, Edinburgh or pretty much anywhere. Still, all I need is a quite couple of days…
Many thanks to all those who chose to correspond on the subject of Advent Wreaths. For the record, we don’t have advent wreaths in Sweden, but rather a thingy (adventljus?) which places the four candles in a straight line. These may be decorated with green stuff but are more likely just to be metal. This…
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