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Say Hello to my Little Friend » Blog Archiv » Auckland Anglicanism, Same Sex Unions and Ordination
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Yesterday on Saturday the 3rd of September 2011, the Auckland Synod of the Anglican Church in New Zealand passed a motion that people involved in sexual relationships outside of marriage but within committed same-sex relationships would not be impeded from being ordained into ministry.
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As a bishop, one gives up the right to take a stand on issues over which people do, in fact, disagree? This is simply extraordinary. The idea that the job of a bishop is simply to mirror back to the majority within the church what they are already saying has got to be wrong. The Christian faith and its teachings are surely not grounded in the ever-changing present. As representatives of the Christian faith, bishops – like all leaders of the flock – have a duty not just to maintain pastoral sensitivity to those under their care (although of course they do have this duty), but also to, as Jude wrote in the first century, “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” When we ask our Christian leaders what the Christian position is on an issue like sexual relations outside of marriage (and I discussed critiques of the traditional Christian view of marriage as a heterosexual union here), we do not expect to hear an answer like “well, in order to get the answer to that I will need to ask the churches!” This puts the horse well and truly before the cart. Christian churches are Christian by virtue of the content of their faith commitment and practice. Their beliefs and practices are not Christian just because people who go to Christian churches cherish them.
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On the other hand, this was a local decision made at a regional level, and does not govern the practice of any other Diocese than Auckland. Anglicans nationwide are not obliged to avert their eyes when they flick to one of those inconvenient passages of Scripture that speak to the issue of human sexuality. Still, for evangelical Anglicans it’s a disappointing.
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Emeth Aletheia 