Sunday, March 2, 2008

When the earth trembles


There are threats of schism around. For the past couple of years, faith commuities in Canada have tried to respond in various ways to the question of what some would call same-sex unions. While the Roman Catholic Church has maintained its stand against blessing such unions, other Christian denominations such as the United Church of Canada and the Anglican Church in Canada have responded favorably to this newly minted possibility ... but not all of them.

According to a special report published on the website of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, ten Anglican congregations in Canada renounced their connection to the Anglican communion in Canada and have chosen instead to operate under the leadership of Anglican Archbishop Gregory Venables.

The movement that is afoot within the Anglican communion shows that the question of same-sex unions and our openness to recognize them is indeed a thorny issue. Some may say that the apparent silence on the part of the Roman Church in this regard represents disagreement, but history has shown that the Roman Church is very slow to make difinitive judgements. Although there has been a fair amount of publicity over this issue in the past number of years, I believe that the issue is not going away. Whether the Roman Church will be seen to be wise for its hesitation or be left 'in the dust' as the common coloquialism goes, remains to be seen.
(Image: Archbishop Gregory Venables, originally printed in Saint Luke Wordpress)

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