Brazil’s Anglican Church changes its canons to allow same-sex marriage

Jun 5, 2018 by

from ACNS:

The General Synod of the Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil – the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil (IEAB) has approved changes to its canons to permit same-sex marriages. Civil same-sex marriages have been legal in Brazil since 2012.

The decision would not require liturgical changes, the IEAB said in a statement, because gender neutral language had already been introduced into its service for the solemnization of marriage in the 2015 Book of Common Prayer.

The move was overwhelmingly carried by the Synod members with 57 voting in favour and three against; there were two abstentions.

“Canonical changes were approved in an environment filled by the Holy Spirit and with mutual love and respect,” the IEAB said in a statement. “It was preceded by long, deep and spiritual dialogue. This dialogue formally started in 1997, but had been going on much earlier, and reached the whole Province since then through indabas, conferences, consultations, prayers, biblical and theological publications.”

The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Mark Strange, and the Bishop of Huron from the Anglican Church of Canada, Linda Nichols, were amongst international guests present at the meeting.

Read here

Read here about the formation of the new Anglican Church in Brazil, recognised by Gafcon, which remains faithful to orthodox Christian teaching.

Bishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon, the Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council, has criticised the formation of the new church. Archbishop Peter Jensen responds here.

Related Posts

Tags

Share This