The American Anglican Church is the first historical sect of Christianity to say okay to the consecration of gay bishops, as a new documentary called Love Free Or Die, which we caught at Sundance, shows.
But the Church’s counterparts in the UK and in Australia seem to be having a little bit of trouble catching up.
ABC Gippsland reports that Bishop John McIntyre, who assigned openly gay priest to a rural part of Victoria, Australia called Heyfield, is now defending his decision to assign the gay priest. Said McIntyre:
“If they think that I have acted against the Lambeth resolution [an Anglican diktat that banned gay priests], they need to think again, because I didn’t actually ordain this man. He was ordained over 30 years ago in the diocese of Melbourne.
“For the last nearly ten years, David has been a priest in a parish in the diocese of Melbourne where, when he was inducted into that parish the bishop of the day welcomed not only him, but his partner Mark into the life of the parish and the people of that parish were well aware that David was in that relationship, living in the vicarage of that parish.
“I see myself simply as having appointed to a position in this diocese a person who was, to use the formal language, ‘a priest in good standing in his previous diocese.’ To that extent I don’t see myself as having acted against either the Lambeth statement, nor do I see myself as having acted against a resolution of the general synod of our national church here in Australia.”
You tell ’em, Johnny boy!
How about we take this to the next level?
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billy wingartenson
Gays are winning. Its as simple as that. One of these days the bigot churches will go the way of the dodo bird.
Which in the USA includes the southern baptists / evangelicals – the people who gave us slavery, the KKK and segregation.
And the catholic church which kept Europe in virtual slavery for a thousand years of the dark ages. And gave the world the hatred of hte Jews, which Hitler , a catholic ,
leveraged to gain election and 55 million died for the church that claims to support life.
And whose german born pope in 2009 UNexcommunicated bishop Williamson, holocaust
denier.
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-01-26/world/pope.holocaust.denial_1_bishop-richard-williamson-bishop-bernard-fellay-holocaust-denier?_s=PM:WORLD
Also a few other of thousands of goodies about the vatican………
http://answeringchristian.wordpress.com/2011/03/19/vatican-confirms-report-of-sexual-abuse-and-rape-of-nuns-by-priests-in-23-countries/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2049647/BBC-documentary-exposes-50-year-scandal-baby-trafficking-Catholic-church-Spain.html
Joe stratford
Proud to be Episcopalian!
You guys I encourage you to join accepting churches and donate to them so they can keep educating other Christians. I know there is a huge contingent on Queerty that is agnostic but if you specifically need Christ in your life, then join the closest episopalian church or other loving Christian churches. The Lutherans of MN (Elca) are getting more accepting every day. If you are Catholic Evangelical or Southern Baptist, and choose to keep your sect and change them from the inside. That’s admittedly admirable but don’t tithe to them – tithe to churches who are on your side who will be a stronger force in fighting (not defending) bigotry in your churches through dialogue. Don’t enable the haters by tithing or donating to them, of they don’t show any signs that they will learn to love you as Christ does anytime soon.
wtbranch
Some Bible Scriptures on Homosexual & Sexually Immoral Acts. Don’t HATE me; God said it!!
1. Leviticus 18:22
Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.
2. Leviticus 20:13
‘If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
3. Genesis 1:27
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
4. Mark 10:6
But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.
5. Romans 1:26
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
6. Romans 13:12
13Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
7. 1 Corinthians 6:9
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
8. 1 Corinthians 10:8
8We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9We should not test the Lord, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes.
9. 2Corinthians 12:21
21I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged.
10. Galatians 5:19
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
11. Ephesians 5:3 3But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.
12. Colossians 3: 5-10
5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
13. 1Thessalonians 4:3-8
3It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4that each of you should learn to control his own body[a] in a way that is holy and honorable, 5not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; 6and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. 7For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
14. Jude 1:7
7In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
Bryce
A brief journalistic note: alluding to the Episcopal Church as the “American Anglican church” without specifying that’s the body you meant is just confusing. Churches in the United States that title themselves as Anglican are, by a large marjority, congregations that have broken off from the Episcopal Church *because* of their objection to issues like gay ordination. I know this isn’t the New York Times, but can we at least make an effort to not unnecessarily muddy the waters?
WillBFair
@wtbranch: Nice cherry picking. I especially like how you ignore 99.9% of the law but pull out obscure passages, and misinterpret others, to use against people.
And how about these? Ever hear of Jesus and the prophets? Ever notice the constant demands for fairness toward the oppressed?
Matthew 23:23
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier [matters] of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
Matthew 23:24
You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
Micah 6:8
He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
Patricia M.
@Bryce: Yes, this. You are 100% right. Saying “the American Anglican Church” is very, very inaccurate and misleading.
The Episcopal Church is a part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It has ordained openly gay priests and bishops (like Gene Robinson), including those who are openly partnered.
The American churches that call themselves “Anglican,” on the other hand, have left the Episcopal Church over the issue of ordaining gay and transgendered women and men. (In some cases, they ain’t all that happy about having hetero women as priests or bishops, either.)
Evan Mulvihill
@Bryce: @Patricia M.: I’ll be a little more careful in the future. What I was trying to say is that the American branch of the Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church, has voted to allow gay bishops. I’m not sure the easiest way to say that, but I guess I did it wrong.