Former Watertown priest gets to the point

PESSIMISM «

Tony Clavier is an old school Anglican, in that he can abide an array of Christian positions within the church. He's progressive on many issues, as you will see if you read his whole piece.

I share this for those who wonder about all the squabbling over "the gay issue" in the Episcopal Church. Tony makes important points about the violence done to the church in the way the issue has been forwarded:

Set aside the matter of a church having Canons which require clergy not to engage in sexual relationships outside marriage, which elects and confirms people who engage in such relationships: set aside the fact that the blessing of same-sex persons in something resembling marriage counters the doctrine and discipline of our church...

...The crucial matter is one of honesty and trust. Even after the votes taken at the last General Convention which seemed to reject a principled pause in these areas, the PB and the President of the House of Deputies wrote to the leaders of the Anglican Communion stating that TEC still honored its agreement to a moratorium on the ordination and consecration of persons in partnered same-sex relationships and to authorizing same-sex blessings.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has made his dismay quite clear. Mutual affection and submission, the type of any loving relationship, depends on trust. The issue presented to the Communion now is that it cannot trust TEC, for no single agency of TEC represents its voice, and thus one “voice” may say one thing and seem authoritative, only to be drowned out by another which seems authoritative.This confusion of tongues is lauded as TEC’s superior form of government!

One might agree with the ordination of partnered gays and the blessing of their relationships, and still have to face the reality that incoherent and dishonest leadership harms the church. The "ends justify the means" approach taken by TEC's LGBT bureaucracy has degraded tolerance by destroying trust.

h/t Dan Martins