Inclusive?

The last Episcopal church that I attended is a beautiful stone building with priceless stain glass windows and wood carvings that are truly unique in this country. I was told that one other church in the U.S. had carving by this particular artist, but that church burned. The worship style at this church is decidedly Anglo-Catholic or "high church." If a couple is planning to be married the banns of marriage are read. That means that the priest will announce on three separate Sundays that Joe Blow and Jane Doe intend to be married and that persons knowing why these two should be be married should tell what they know. But why?

Reasons for not allowing two people to get married have changed over the years, but some of them might include being too closely related, one person being married already and so forth. Most Episcopal churches I've visited or attended do not follow this old practice anymore. I think the fact that this one still follows the practice is a bit odd, but now that the Episcopal Church has done that they did I think the practice is completely unnecessary.

Recently the Episcopal Church approved a measure to allow gays, lesbians and those living in committed relationships (shacking) to be ordained to the diaconate, the priesthood or the episcopacy. You can read this story for more detail. Huw's post on this matter and the following discussion is pretty interesting too, though I'm not 100 percent proud of my contributions. Apparently the bishops and lay delegates also decided to make it possible for gays and lesbians to be married in the Episcopal Church.

I'm bothered that the local media has been silent on what I believe is the most monumental decision the Episcopal Church has made since 1976 when they began ordaining women to the priesthood. Unlike this decision, however, I can't quite figure out what this actually does to the status of TEC in regards to its authenticity as a Christian body. I can accept women priests and have received their sacraments. Neither the arguments for or against the ordination of women to any kind of ministry impress me, so I have no reason to discount the validity of their ministry. However, this decision goes against 2,000 years of Christian moral theology. I'm upset.

It's very hard being me when it comes to religion. I really feel that structured contemplative worship is something I feel fed by, and I believe that sacramental theology is also important. Even the Baptist church I've been visiting lately has some quasi-sacramental tendencies. I'm what you might call a lower case "c" catholic. I don't believe that pope is infallible and I don't believe that there is one absolute true church that everyone must belong to in order to be saved. I don't necessarily feel comfortable with confession because of experiences I've had and I don't feel that I must run spiritually related decisions by a member of the clergy. I guess I like a middle ground. That middle ground is officially gone. Oh, sure there are other Anglican churches around. There are three Anglican churches whose bishops are in Africa, but the two I've visited don't seem to respect Anglican worship. There is an Anglican Catholic mission in the area, but I have some misgivings about them too.

The real middle ground is gone. They've totally and completely given themselves over to the dark side in my opinion. They have pleased the world. They want to include everyone even though they want to relegate those who disagree with them to a second class status. They want to shock and horrify their opponents. Well, where is Christ in all of this? And, was it announced in very many Episcopal churches today that from now on gays, lesbians and cohabitants will be eligible for ordination? Was it announced that gay marriages in TEC may very well be a reality? No, it was probably mentioned that "We did a lot of work for the Kingdom and we're all very eager to get to work here at home. "A lot of decisions were made and a lot of things happened. We all made a lot of friends at General Convention. We sang kumba ya and life is good." Yeah, let's just keep quiet about what really happened.