Episcopal Diocese of Virginia endorses workshop to find "the way forward" to institute same sex blessings in the diocese
Via e-mail from the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia Region IV:The Way Forward
Part 2
Join us for a Workshop to explore The Way Forward to full inclusion and blessing in the Church within this Diocese. This meeting will be a follow-up to a similar event that took place at St. Mark's, Richmond in September. Members of parishes who participated in the Diocese's listening process last spring and summer have been invited to discuss their experiences. We will also discuss the next steps in our discernment for "the way forward." One and all are welcome!!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
12:00-3:00 p.m.
St. Anne's Episcopal Church
1700 Wainwright Drive, Reston VA 20190
Light lunch provided, $6 donation requested.
Via e-mail from the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia Region IV:
10 comments:
Having made the decision to leave is looking better and better every day...
RalphM
This was a diocesan email? It reads like a parish announcement.
I don't know much, but I know Bishop Johnston would be clear and make a wide scale announcement about an endorsement of any such major change in the Diocese of Virginia.
BB, have you asked the Diocese? The bishop? His staff?
This doesn't seem like the way they'd do this.
It came through the official communications channel of Region IV of the Diocese of Virginia. It was sent out by the President of the Diocesan Missionary Society (Diocese of Virginia) to all the delegates of Region IV.
The Diocesan Missionary Society is under the authority of the Executive Board of the Diocese of Virginia.
bb
Ah, but we're all good standing members of the Anglican Communion aren't we?
Aren't we?
Hello? Aren't we?
Helloooo....
This notice was sent out in the Diocesan e-news mailing, distributed by the Diocesan staff.
As for Bishop Johnston he has publically stated his support for this process (though not this specific meeting) at Diocesan Council last year and in his letter to the Diocese following General Convention this year. He has said that he believes it's the right thing to do as a matter of justice and because of the church's need to keep up with changing social conditions. All this yet in this month's letter in the Va Episcopalian he states the church needs to be counter cultural. And then on yet another hand, he understands SSB's are a problem for our connection with the Anglican Communion ... which is why he spoke in favor of the measures at General Convention but voted against them.
Ahhh, the broad middle? Or was that muddle?
That's so bootiful, it brings tears to my eyes!
Someone needs to inform Bishop Johnston that what he wants to do is, in the current reality of our society, not "counter cultural."
Those that left the Diocese...now that's really counter-cultural!
And as for his speaking in favour of SSB's but voting against them, he's in the wrong place as a bishop. He should be in Congress.
Counter-cultural is in the eyes of the beholder. With the recent defeat of gay marriage in Maine, the endorsing of SSBs looks pretty counter-cultural to me.
Fr. Weir:
First: never underestimate the power of our elites to move our culture. Who would have thought that we would have elected such a thoroughly left wing President?
Second, same sex civil marriage (not the same as SSB's, to be sure, but you brought it up) is a strategic error by the leadership of the LGBT community. In pursuit of real equality, they would have been better off advocating the abolition of civil marriage or, barring that, the evisceration of the "rights" (to use their misleading term) of marriage. The latter process has been well in progress for some time.
They did not realise (or care) that they would face opposition from two hetrosexual groups: religious people who equate civil marriage with the divine institution, and have made heterosexual marriage a "last stand" kind of issue, and hetrosexuals who are abandoning civil marriage altogether in increasing numbers.
The result of this is yet another knock-down, drag-out fight of the kind we have become so proficient in these United States.
You may (or may not) find my thoughts on Southeast Florida Bishop Leo Frade's allowance of SSB's of interest as well. My guess is that, if the area covered by this diocese were to vote on same sex civil marriage (it's where I'm from,) it would pass. Florida in general might defeat it, but South Floridians have been griping about the "crackers in the Panhandle" since the days of the Pork Chop Gang. What is counter cultural depends on the culture you're in or from.
Rev. Weir,
Not really. To gauge "counter-cultural," you should ask yourself which position is safest to articulate in public. People can vote by secret ballot (thank goodness), but I think the roll call would be quite different if everybody were asked to sit down in public and announce their views. Part of this, no doubt, is due to the kind of thuggish behavior, etc., we recently saw in California in the wake of Prop 8. And, again, nobody is going to walk into the break room at a corporation of any size and pronounce SSB to be badly wrong, but the opposite, well, I think one is pretty safe doing so. That's not to mention the real arbiters of "culture" in America, namely, Hollywood and the media elites. ECUSA is not said to hold "MTV values" for nothing.
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