Episcopal gay marriage
Stances of Faiths on LGBTQ+ Issues: Episcopal Church
BACKGROUND
Among its statements of belief, the Episcopal Church includes, “In Jesus, we find that the essence of God is care for, and through baptism, we share in his victory over sin and death.” They further emphasize, “We strive to love our neighbors as ourselves and respect the dignity of every person.”
With 2 million members, the U.S.-based Episcopal Church is just one branch of a worldwide Anglican Communion of 85 million. The church operates under the direction of two legislative bodies: the House of Deputies, with lay and clergy representatives from across the church, and the House of Bishops, which includes all bishops of the church. Together they make doctrinal, administrative and budgetary decisions at a General Convention that convenes every three years. An Executive Council of clergy and lay leaders manages the business of the church in the intervening period, and are elected at each General Convention, with a Presiding Bishop elected every nine years. Changes to the church constitution and to canon law are enacted only through a majority vote in both houses. The Constitution and Canons of the Epi
Diocesan bishops who blocked same-sex marriages grab reluctant first steps toward allowing ceremonies
Deputies, bishops and visitors packed a rendezvous room in the Austin Hilton Hotel the afternoon of July 5 to testify on three marriage-related resolutions. Photo: Mary Frances Schjonberg/Episcopal News Service
[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church’s General Convention first approved trial rites for homosexual marriage ceremonies in 2015, but the bishops of eight domestic dioceses still refused to approve those ceremonies in their congregations as of this month, heading into the 79th General Convention in Austin, Texas.
Then Resolution B012 happened.
After a back-and-forth negotiation between the Residence of Deputies and House of Bishops, both houses approved an amended B012 that struck a compromise on the issue of granting Episcopalians across the country access to the liturgies, regardless of their bishops’ stance on male lover marriage.
The new requirement doesn’t take consequence until the first Sunday of Advent, Dec. 2, and it remains to be seen how those eight dioceses will implement the process outlined by B012. They are the dioceses of Albany, Central Florida, Dallas, Florida,
The General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church today voted in favour of altering the church’s Canon on Marriage to remove the definition that marriage is between a man and a woman and combine a new section that acknowledges that there are alternative understandings of marriage which now allows clergy to solemnise marriage between similar sex couples as well as couples of the antonym sex. The revised canon also stipulates that no member of clergy will be required to solemnise a marriage against their conscience.
The voting was in three ‘houses’ of General Synod, namely Bishops, Clergy, Laity and required a two thirds majority to pass. The voting results are as below.
Responding to the voting outcome, the Most Rev David Chillingworth, Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church said:
“This is the finish of a elongated journey. There was the Cascade Process involving people across our church – the Doctrine Committee paper which explored whether a Christian understanding of marriage could extend to same sex couples. We have studied, thought and prayed.
“In the life of the church, finish points are often also starting points. This is a momento
The vote on Wednesday represents the latest move by the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion, which claims roughly 2 million members, to embrace the LGBT community.
In 2003, the church appointed an openly gay bishop to lead its New Hampshire diocese. And Episcopalian bishops already had the freedom to allow lgbtq+ couples to marry in their dioceses.
Last week at the general assembly in Salt Lake Municipality, church leaders elected Michael Curry, who had said the Supreme Court's vote for marriage equality "affirmed the authenticity of love," as their presiding bishop.
Two other mainline Protestant churches, the Merged Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church, also allow gay marriage.
However, the vote on Wednesday exposes the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion to criticism from fellow Anglicans abroad — there are an estimated 80 million Anglicans worldwide. African Anglican leaders had denounced the Church of England for accepting celibate gay bishops.
Those divisions may be what Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the most senior bishop in the loosely assembled global Anglican Communion, was trying to avoid when he bristled at the prospect of the church's U.S. af