Month: October 2011

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MN diocese declares majority of Catholics “not in good standing” because they support teh gay

Catholic? Supporter of marriage equality? The Minnesota Catholic Conference (MCC — humorously, the same acronym used for the Metropolitan Community Church) and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis have some bad news for you. You are not “in good standing with the Church.”

In response to the formation of Catholics for Marriage Equality (CME), a group of Catholics opposed to the marriage equality ban set for the ballot in 2012, the MCC and the Archdiocese have issued a joint statement for-shaming these Catholics for not hating gays as much as the Church. From the statement:

A group calling itself “Catholics for Marriage Equality MN” seeks to confuse Catholics and the public about authentic Church teaching related to matters of marriage and sexuality. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Minnesota Catholic Conference wish to make it known that this group does not speak for the Catholic Church, is not an agent or entity of the Archdiocese, MCC, or the universal Church, and has no authority to determine what does and does not constitute Christian doctrine and morality. The Archdiocese asks that Catholics avoid associating themselves with this group, and not be deceived by its messages, which are in conflict with the fundamental teachings of the Church.
“Catholics for Marriage Equality MN” attempts to convince Catholics that they can be in good standing with the Church and oppose Church teaching about human sexuality and marriage, which centers on the complementarity of the sexes and the mutual self-gift of loving spouses in marital union. The group also misleads people by proposing a false ecclesiology that undermines the legitimate authority of the bishops and the Magisterium as the authentic guardian, interpreter, and teacher of the faith handed to the apostles by Jesus Christ.

Full Article HERE!

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Women bishops law in Anglican Church makes progress

This month the campaign to allow women bishops in the Church of England could clear another hurdle.

Supporters are surprised and encouraged by the backing it has been getting in the Church’s regional councils, or synods.

“We were expecting positive votes but the overwhelming majorities have been more encouraging than we expected,” says Helena Jenkins, a parishioner of St Luke’s church in Sevenoaks, Kent.

“I like to think it’s the Holy Spirit moving, because I just feel so strongly that this is the right way for the Church to go,” says Ms Jenkins, a member of the campaign group Women and the Church.

“And I think even some people who have difficulty with the idea of women in ministry have been listening perhaps more than they were.”

The measure needs the approval of half the synods of the Church’s 44 dioceses before it returns to the General Synod, which could take a final vote on the measure next July.

This month 16 more dioceses will vote, and it is hard to see the women bishops measure not picking up the six it needs.

But will the General Synod follow suit?

Jim Cheeseman thinks not. A parishioner of St John’s Anglo-Catholic parish in Sevenoaks, he is a member of the General Synod, and of the Rochester diocesan synod which will vote on 15 October.

The women bishops law needs two-thirds majorities in each of the General Synod’s three Houses – Bishops, Clergy and Laity.

“I would think probably 40% of the House of Laity are against,” says Mr Cheeseman.

Deadlock remains over attempts to provide for those parishes who object to women bishops on principle.

Authority dispute

The proposed legislation as it stands allows for the bishop of a diocese to appoint a stand-in male bishop to look after a parish opposed to women bishops.

Opponents say accepting a bishop (even one who shares their Anglo-Catholic or Evangelical views) appointed by a woman diocesan bishop would mean accepting her authority.

They want the stand-in bishops to derive their powers from the law itself, and not from the bishop of the diocese.

Supporters of women bishops say that is unacceptable because it means a woman would be a “second class bishop” without control in her own diocese.

The diocesan synods have mostly backed that view – but two (Sheffield and Manchester) have passed a “following motion” calling for the stand-in bishops to have independent authority.

A compromise amendment by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York on “co-ordinating the exercise of episcopal ministry” was backed by the bishops and laity in the General Synod last year, but beaten in the House of Clergy.

The House of Bishops has the power to amend the legislation to reintroduce something similar before the General Synod votes again.

This would cause many months of delay and be unpopular with supporters of the proposed law.

But the Reverend Angus MacLeay says some might welcome it if it means means “that they can much more easily get over the two-thirds hurdle”.

Mr MacLeay is rector of the large Evangelical parish of St Nicholas, Sevenoaks, a member of the General and diocesan synods, and a trustee of Reform, the conservative Evangelical group which opposes women’s ordination.

“If a substantial minority were saying we need to slightly rethink this I think that ought to weigh heavily with the House of Bishops and I think also with General Synod,” he says.

For Helena Jenkins such a proposed compromise “creates a sensation of second-class ministry which I think would be very damaging… the compromise position wouldn’t feel right to anybody”.

Financial fears

How will opponents react if the law goes through as it stands?

Jim Cheeseman thinks there is little desire among the remaining Anglo-Catholics to rush to join those who have already joined the Roman Catholic Church.

“My counsel is always patience. It’s one thing having a law; it’s another thing it actually affecting you,” he says.

But he warns that not giving parishes opposed to women bishops the provision they want “would give the impression that we’re not wanted in the Church”.

If there is no compromise, he says: “I fear that the Church of England will not be financially viable.

“Parish share (the contribution parishes make to general church funds) is voluntary. There’s not a legal requirement to pay.

“You can’t expect people to be united in mission and giving if they feel they’re not wanted.”

Angus MacLeay also thinks any crunch moment for opponents of women bishops in
Sevenoaks would be far in the future. Rochester welcomed its new bishop, James Langstaff, only last year.

“I’m certainly not wanting to leave the Church of England. I’m intending to stay – but it just makes things more difficult, a requirement to accept this particular change,” says Mr MacLeay.

And if the proposed legislation fails? “I think I would be sad,” says Helena Jenkins. “But I’d still want to go on working for it.

“We have some very able women in the Church of England who I think would make superb bishops.”

Full Article HERE!

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Protestant denomination to ordain openly gay minister in Madison Wisconsin

Twenty-one years ago, Scott Anderson had a choice. He could continue to serve as a Presbyterian minister but hide his identity as a gay man. Or he could leave the ministry and live, as he says, “with a sense of integrity” about who he is.

Anderson left the ministry in 1990, believing that door would never open to him again. Now it has.

On Saturday, Anderson, of Madison, will become the first openly gay minister ordained by the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. since the denomination amended its constitution this year to allow it.

Hundreds of friends and supporters, and possibly some protesters, are expected to turn out at Covenant Presbyterian Church for what is being called a watershed moment in the life of the denomination. It is also the culmination of one man’s deeply personal spiritual journey.

“I have felt a call from God to serve as a parish pastor since I was a sophomore in high school,” said Anderson, 56, a near-lifelong Presbyterian who has spent the last eight years as executive director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches.

“When I came out and left the ministry, I never thought in my lifetime this day would come,” he said. “This has been 20 years of God surprising me, really.”

Anderson will be ordained this time by the John Knox Presbytery, a group of 60 congregations in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. Sunday’s service follows decades of rancorous debate in the mainline Christian denomination over the inclusion of gay and lesbian people, and a yearlong legal challenge by a Portage-area congregation that sought to block the ordination.

Supporters say Anderson is profoundly qualified, describing him as a compassionate and deeply spiritual man, a gifted preacher, well-versed in theology.

“Scott’s gifts for ministry were so abundant and clear,” said the Rev. Nancy Enderle, who headed the presbytery committee that oversaw Anderson’s three-year ordination process and recommended him unanimously. She now serves as executive director of Covenant Network, a Presbyterian organization devoted to inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

“He has this tremendous intellect, but also an air of humility and grace,” she said.

Despite the committee’s unanimous recommendation, the broader church and even the John Knox Presbytery remain deeply divided over the issue of gay and lesbian clergy.

“We want leaders to uphold the highest levels of conduct within the denomination,” said Forrest Norman, chairman of the North Carolina-based Presbyterian Lay Committee, which opposes the ordination of gay and lesbian pastors, saying it is inconsistent with Biblical teaching.

“We want people to live in the way God called them to live.”

Gay and lesbian advocates also point to the Bible to support their views.

“The kinds of covenanted, faithful same-sex partnerships we have today simply didn’t exist in the times when the Bible was written,” said the Rev. Mark Achtemeier, who served with Anderson on a national panel charged with helping the church find some consensus around the issue.

“What the Bible writers were condemning were the exploitative, violent, idolatrous behaviors that were going on in the pagan societies all around them,” said Achtemeier, a conservative Christian who now supports the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy and will deliver the sermon at Anderson’s ordination.
Eight years as a pastor

Anderson grew up near Sacramento, Calif., in a conservative Christian family that joined the Presbyterian Church when he was a teenager. He attended Princeton Theological Seminary, where he realized he was gay, and spent eight years pastoring churches in California until he was outed by a couple in his congregation in 1990.

Anderson calls the meeting where he told church members the truth about who he is “the best and worst moment of my life.”

The congregation responded with tears and a standing ovation, he said, and weeks later: a check that would cover two years of graduate school.

Anderson picked up a master’s in public policy, assuming he’d end up in the vast California state government bureaucracy. But a part-time post with the California Council of Churches set him on a career path that would bring him to Wisconsin – with his partner of now 20 years – in 2003.

Along the way, he remained active in the Presbyterian church, including working to overturn the church’s 1978 prohibition against ordaining gays and lesbians.

“I think part of my call from God was to stay,” said Anderson, who’s had offers to leave for other denominations.

He was the only openly gay member of the national task force that unanimously recommended, among other things, a way for presbyteries to ordain gays and lesbians.

In 2006, the church resurrected a 200-year-old practice known as “scrupling,” which allowed a candidate to state his objection to a particular church teaching, and the presbytery to decide whether that objection was enough to bar ordination.
Finally a chance again

That was the crack in the door for Anderson to begin the three-year ordination process. The John Knox Presbytery approved him 81-25, but a dissenting congregation filed a complaint to block it in the church’s legal system.

By the time the high court took it up this summer, it was moot. The national church had voted in 2010 to change its constitution to allow gay and lesbian clergy, and it was ratified by a majority of presbyteries in July.

The door was now fully open to Anderson.

At his ordination, Anderson will receive the pastor’s stole he wore at his last church in California. He had given it to the Shower of Stoles project, a commemoration of the gifts lost to the church by the barring of gay and lesbian clergy.

For now, he’ll stay at the Council of Churches, which serves as a resource and advocacy arm for Christian congregations around a host of social and economic justice issues.

But his hope is to one day return to the parish ministry.

“I have probably 10, 12 more years of ministry left,” he said. “And whether that’s here or in a local parish, I’ll have to wait and see what God has in store for me.”

Full Article HERE!

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Study finds most unmarried, college-age Christians sexually active

A study by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy determined 88 percent of unmarried Christians ages 18 to 29 have had sex, despite the general push for abstinence in most Christian denominations.

But while these statistics may seem shocking, some are casting doubt on their accuracy and meaning for Christianity.

The study also found 64 percent of those surveyed have been sexually active in the last year, while 42 percent are in a current sexual relationship. The study was published in RELEVANT Magazine, a Catholic news magazine, which devoted a three-page spread to the findings in their September/October issue.

Marquette students and faculty had various reactions to the statistics and overall concept of the study.

John Haugland, a sophomore in the College of Engineering and practicing Catholic, thought the studies were drastic misconceptions.

“If you look at this campus you would find that the majority of the students will identify as Christian, but how many are actually practicing?” Haugland said. “The study may be more applicable if this was distinguished.”

Haugland said he believes the study generalized the Christian population.

“If you are true to your beliefs and are truly practicing, you will abide by what the faith says,” Haugland said. “People choose to practice their religion either fully or partially – this may be a part that some Christians dismiss.”

The Rev. Thomas Anderson, associate director of Campus Ministry, said he did not find the report surprising.

“I believe most teenagers are at that stage of life when they may begin to move from a nominal adherence to a more personal appropriation,” Anderson said in an email.

Susan Mountin, director for faculty for the Manresa Project and former campus minister at Marquette from 1978 to 2001, was responsible for the marriage preparation program and worked with pregnant students or those who had abortions while attending Marquette.

“Believe me, students were sexually active at Marquette,” Mountin said in an email. “I cannot imagine there are fewer students who are sexually active now ten years later … society has made sexual activity a very casual thing.”

Mountin said she found that students generally engaged in sexual activities for what she called “the wrong reasons.”

“I also hope we can have more free and open conversations about this topic at Marquette,” Mountin said. “Sometimes there is a lot of ‘experimenting’ that goes on with relationships in college.”

Full Article HERE!