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Anglicans Discipline US Episcopal Church over Gay Marriage
You can watch my interview with CBN News
By David W. Virtue DD
www.virtueonline.org
January 21, 2016
You know you might be doing something right when the opposition hates you so much, goes ballistic, raging against the night spewing forth anger and bile about a decision that will in time affect their place in the club.
This is what happened this past week in Canterbury. By a vote of 27 yes, 3 no with 6 abstaining the Primates of the Anglican communion in consort with the Archbishop of Canterbury said The Episcopal church (and any other body including the Anglican Church of Canada, the Scottish Episcopal church, EVEN the Church of England) must adhere to a traditional view of marriage between a man and a woman, (no exceptions,) or face possible expulsion from the communion in three years.
The actions taken by the primates was no longer voluntary (Rowan Williams failed game plan) it was now mandatory and has teeth and will be watched over by a Task Force set up by the ABC.
The liberal/revisionist Episcopal blogosphere, mostly laity with some clergy, went ballistic accusing the primates of homophobia and hate, with some threatening to shut down the money supply to the Anglican Communion Office. Wiser heads prevailed arguing that TEC would really lose its place and influence if such drastic action was taken. Some $400,000 a year to pay Secretary General Archbishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon guarantees that TEC's voice will not only be heard but heeded.
But belligerence reigned with Presiding Bishop Michael Curry roaring, "We are the Episcopal Church, and we are part of the Jesus Movement, and that Movement goes on, and our work goes on. It may be part of our vocation to help the Communion and to help many others to grow in a direction where we can realize and live the love that God has for all of us, and we can one day be a Church and a Communion where all of God's children are fully welcomed, where this is truly a house of prayer for all people. And maybe it's a part of our vocation to help that to happen."
The Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, President of the Episcopal Church's House of Deputies fired off her big gun saying; "I want to assure you that nothing about what the primates have said will change the actions of General Convention that have, over the past four decades, moved us toward full inclusion and equal marriage. And regardless of the primates' vote, we Episcopalians will continue working with Anglicans across the globe to feed the hungry, care for the sick, educate children, and heal the world. Nothing that happens at a primates' meeting will change our love for one another or our commitment to serving God together."
So now the ball is squarely in the court of TEC and quite possibly the ACoC depending on their own actions regarding how they vote about same-sex marriage this summer. We watch with anticipation and some trepidation how this will play out over the next three years.
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