Cranmer here has some interesting news about the now mandatory use of Denmark's established (Evangelical Lutheran) churches for same-sex marriages (with the usual fig leaf of a [temporary] opt-out clause for those individual clergy opposed in conscience); this will inevitably be the future in Britain if the Con-Lib Coalition gets its way in the wake of its present 'consultation.'.
Not that this will necessarily have to be 'forced' on some non-established churches - in the light of the presidential address at its Governing Body meeting in April, I fully expect the increasingly theologically anchorless Church in Wales to move in this direction without any coercion from the State.
Not quite a forced marriage, its dioceses perhaps forced to come together by common adversity, but certainly a strange voluntary liaison of the theologically disparate, the ACNA, (The Anglican Church of North America) is urged by Metropolitan Jonah of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) to reform itself by returning to the faith of the Undivided Church (abandoning women's ordination and any residual elements of Calvinism, and dropping the filioque clause in the Nicene Creed) as a condition of ecumenical progress:
Here's a taste:
"...There is a radical cultural shift away from traditional Christianity, toward something unrecognizable. The “Secularists” (for lack of a better, non-pejorative term) reject the virgin birth of Christ, the resurrection, even His Divinity; that His words are recorded in the Scriptures and that the Scriptures are even relevant to our days; rather they are oppressive and keep humans in darkness. Another Episcopalian bishop, a certain Mr. Spong, wrote that “Christianity must change or die,” referring to traditional orthodoxy, espousing the radical secularization of the Episcopal Church and all Christianity. It is my prediction that it is not the Orthodox Churches that will die..."The full text can be read here
Well said Metropolitan Jonah. If only!
ReplyDeleteI won't hold my breath!
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