Two churches face more tension over same sex marriage
by John Sandeman, Eternity News:
“Don’t get upset about same-sex marriages” is the message leaders of two of Australia’s largest church networks are giving to orthodox Christians. The Uniting Church is playing out in Sunnybank in southern Brisbane and the Anglican church in a letter to bishops (regional leaders) from their titular head.
“There has not been a flood of same-sex blessings following the Appellate Tribunal opinion. Not a flood, not a trickle. Not a drip.” Archbishop Geoff Smith, Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, writes to his fellow Bishops.
He’s referring to the decision of the churches legal decision-making body, the Appellate Tribunal, that dioceses (regions) of the church can pass local rules to permit church blessings of civil marriages between same-sex persons.
Smith is criticising a move by the local branch of GAFCON, a worldwide network of conservative Anglicans, to prepare a structure to receive Anglicans who may want to leave dioceses that bless gay marriages. (Newcastle and Wangaratta are the regions that have set up rules for these blessings.)
As Eternity reported, “This announcement means that in certain ‘progressive’ regions of the Anglican Church of Australia, there will be a conservative Anglican Church, much like the Anglican Church of North America which operates in the United States and Canada.”
Archbishop Smith is of the view that this is an overreaction.
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