I was reading the post-General Synod letter from Bishop Cowan, which can be found here: http://bc.anglican.ca/Bishop%27s%20Pastoral%20Letter%20GS.pdf
The bit I found interesting I copied out below, as I had not yet seen what the Bishops pastoral letter might look like in practice:
The problem I have with this is that it begs the question. It is implicitly assumed that homosexual relationships have ‘integrity and sanctity’, and that dictates the pastoral response. However, we would be looking at a very different pastoral response if we came from an understanding that homosexual relationships are inherently disordered.
Hence the basic dishonesty, in my opinion, of the Bishops pastoral letter. It assumes the question without saying so, but then refuses to accept the logical outcome of such an assumption – which would be same-sex marriage. This kind of pastoral response is ultimately likely to please nobody on either side.
Peter,
The question of ‘sanctity and integrity’ has, unfortunately, already been decided at General Synod 2004. Resolution A134 was amended to add the statement, “That this General Synod…Affirm the integrity and sanctity of committed adult same sex relationships.” The amended resolution was passed.
While the church took no action following that resolution, from a theological perspective it completely answered the question about same-sex blessings. To say that something is ‘sanctified’ is to affirm that God’s blessing has already been granted.
That is the result when a legislative body (Synod) seeks to legislate on matters of great theological import, without really understanding the significance of the resolution. The resolution seems to be a simple legislative affirmation, but has profound theological content.
This “piece of work” by Bishop Cowan, Diocese of British Columbian is nothing short of qualifying as trash. It is this kind of diatribe that is leading people down the wrong path and when Bishops send this junk out as being “permission granted” when they are saying they are not really in fovour is foolishness.
I am growing more and more tired every day of this kind of anti-scriptural garbage being allowed within the Church in Canada and personally cannot wait for Essentials and ANiC to get things really rolling and get us under Primatial Oversight that will eliminate this trash as being part of the Church.
I attended an non-denominational service this morning, something like two hours in length that seemed like only an hour and it was so uplifting that it makes one wonder. Will the North American Anglican Churches ever have enough courage to turn from their ways. “IF MY PEOPLE WHO CALL THEMSELVES BY MY NAME…..”
when will the pride of being wiser than the Holy Bible repent and call upon the Lord for direction instead of the wisdom of elected people who are elected by proud anglicans who are not practicing following Scripture?
Gerry,
I total agree with you !!!
Looks like things are beginning to move, eh? This fall will be interesting…..
Bishop Cowan’s “pastoral” letter apparently was read to the congregation a week ago Sunday in place of the homily in my Vancouver Island parish. Mercifully I was in Vancouver that weekend and was spared the dilemma of deciding whether to walk out of the service or not when confronted with the stark reality of just how unpersuaded our Bishop has become concerning the supremacy of the Scriptures with respect to all doctrine required for eternal salvation and how undetermined he has become to teach or maintain nothing as required of necessity to eternal salvation, but that which he is persuaded may be concluded and proved by Scripture.
My first move for the exit would have come when he characterized the reasons for strain in the Communion outlined in the Windsor
Report as “decisions by some primates to invade the territories of others, and decisions around people who are gay or lesbian”.
What an interesting and revealing choice of language. To describe the actions of certain primates in reaching out to lend comfort and assistance to those faithful Anglicans in Canada and the US who had been abandoned and even persecuted by their bishops as an “invasion” is akin to calling those who manned the rescue boats sent to Dunkirk, or to pull the survivors of the Titanic from the North Atlantic waters as “invaders”. How convenient of him to ignore the cause for such interventions. Bishop Cowan’s characterization is disingenuous at best, mendacious at worst and pure chicanery from any objective perspective. Similarly his neutered language surrounding the actions taken by the ACC in affirming the sanctity of same sex unions, calling these mere “decisions” is repellent to any seeker of the truth.
If I had managed to stay in my pew past this first assault on my sensibilities, I don’t know how I could have managed to stay put after hearing Bishop Cowan declare that he had given instruction to the notorious priest in Victoria, Fr. Antonio “to refrain from doing anything that might look like or be construed as a blessing” (in favour of same sex couples), but then go on to provide Guidelines and prayers to be used at a Eucharist under the heading “Giving Thanks With Same Sex Couples”.
The doublespeak used by the Bishop in his letter and in the prayers is breathtaking. The structure of the prayers conjures up for me the picture of the molasses and honey naughty boys would slather onto a slug before offering it up to an unsuspecting victim as a prank. The title speaks of giving thanks “with” same sex couples, no doubt a bit of literary legerdemain at which the revisionists within the ACC have become expert, aimed at countering the contention that these prayers are specifically directed at and “for” same sex couples.
The drafters were less adroit when it came to the language of the prayers however. The opening intercessory prayer asks that God “grant that all who confess your Name may be united in truth. This is the first big daub of molasses. The next 3 intercessory prayers all are directed at the couple standing before the congregation and ask among other things that God grant the couple wisdom, strength, comfort, a knitting of their wills together with God’s will (note which comes first), and grace to acknowledge fault when they hurt each other and to seek each other’s forgiveness and God’s (again in that order). The sweetness from the first bite has begun to fade. Now comes the real meat to the sandwich to further my metaphor. The intercessor next calls on those in attendance to ask that God “make their ( the same sex couple’s) life together a sign of Christ’s love to a sinful and broken world, that unity may overcome estrangement, forgiveness heal guilt, and joy conquer despair.”
What more concrete way could one elect to describe the consequences of God having blessed someone than to say as a result of God’s intervention, that person’s life now serves as “a sign of Christ’s love to a sinful and broken world”? Yet Bishop Cowan wants us to believe that such an intercessory prayer as he has authorized, lifted up to heaven on behalf of same sex couples after the celebration of the Eucharist in any church in his diocese, does not constitute a blessing of that relationship.
There is an oleaginous quality to this that is deeply offensive to all who take a stand against same sex blessings based on the wholly unanswered contention that there is no support whatsoever in the Scriptures for such blessings, and an abundance of evidence in Scripture that such relationships are signs of our sinful and fallen nature.
One can only pray that within each parish in the Diocese of British Columbia there will be raised more and more voices of resistance to the direction in which their church is being led and that out of the promised work to be done at all levels within the diocese to “understand what is at issue here”, will emerge the Truth.
Mr. Cowan is just one more in my booklet that does not deserve to carry the title of Bishop. I pray that the day will come that this “blog” will be filled with inserts from across the Country speaking out against this twisted form of Bishoprick.
Mr. Cowan, I am quite confident that you are lending your eyes to this site. Perhaps if you do so enough, you will have the veil lifted from over your eyes and will see the Truth and know the Truth and follow the Truth rather than the perversive nature of man.
The only good thing I can say about this letter and Liturgy? from Mr. Cowan is that he had the intestinal fortitude to write it out and send it across his diocese. The worst of it is that even the good people in this diocese will be persuaded by it that it’s “OK”.
I wonder when the more Conservative Bishops will start to have the testicular courage to sit down, write out in no uncertain terms that their attitude is totally against this liberal minded trash.
Come on you Good Bishops, Come on you strong minded Parish Priests, sit down and write out the truth on these blogs.
Perhaps all should start reading the Global South blogs (Just google “Global South Anglican” and you will find them. Find out that there are 8-10 Bishops in The Church of England that are talking of boycotting Lambeth 2008 if the Global South is not heard.
Find out about the Diocese of Sydney boycotting Lambeth 2008, find out about Bishop Ben of the Diocese of Jos in Nigeria being threatened with his death twice in the past few weeks. FIND OUT what is going on and then SPEAK OUT…..BE HEARD.
The following is an exerpt taken from an interview of Dr. Sentamu, Archbishop of York. UNBELIEVABLE
“Recapturing a sense of imagination
A fan of the Harry Potter books, Dr Sentamu urged the Church to enthuse people by capturing their imaginations.
“What the Church of England has lost is the art of telling stories,” he said. “We have become more monosyllabic. A sense of imagination sometimes isn’t around.
“We need to rediscover the greatest story tellers and I have to say, as a Christian, that Jesus was an unbelievable story teller.
“He had the ability of simplifying and then exaggerating and that is what actually happens in Harry Potter.”
He continued: “I don’t go in for magic, but mystery for me is that which remains when explanation, logic, reasoning have all been exhausted.
“We’ve gone into the logic, the reasoning, the explanation. Ultimately, when you have done all of that, there is something bigger than that which we call mystery. For me, Jesus is at the heart of this great mystery.
“We’ve tried hard to explain everything and I don’t know where that came from.
“Not all things are explainable. Not all things are solvable. Some things really remain unresolved.” “”"
Dr. Sentamu, either I am reading your words owrong or am interpreting wrong, but are you actually comparing the Miracles of Jesus Christ to the ‘magic’ of Harry Potter. You are an ArchBishop in the Church of England and you spend your leisure hours reading books that promote witchcraft and wizardry!!
Would your time not be better spent in encouraging Christians to believe the Truth of the New Testament instead of saying that Jesus Christ was an Exaggerator? Jesus Christ does not deserve to be reduced to being compared to the garbage written in Harry Potter.
It seems to me that Dr. Sentamu is trying to “stir the pot” to bring things to a boil, threatening the Global South that they will be the ones who choose to “walk apart” when it is the Global South that is trying to get TEC, ACC, CofEngland and the European Groupings to “see the light”.
“”Unbelievable.”"
I think its time you all got over it. Gerry, as much as you can call the work of the Bishop in BC a piece of trash, I assume you can be called a wind bag. The best thing that could happend to the Anglican Church of Canada is that you, Don Harvey, and all the rest of you just LEAVE. Then we can move forward without closed mined individuals like you and yours.
Steve: There is just one little problem with your comment, and it that those in ANiC and Essentials are NOT the ones wanting to leave.
It is the liberals (you) that want to get on with this perverse nature of anti scriptural religion that, just like the TEC south of the border that are wanting to go away from the Anglican Church.
Now, Steve, like the rest, you are trying desperately to put the blame on the Orthodox Conservatives for the ACC falling apart (which it is and will). Your stand is nothing new and NO STEVE, I will not get over it. N’or will Bishop Don Harvey or any of the others involved in trying to set up a life boat for those in the Church that want to remain true to Scripture and The Anglican Communion worldwide.