Making TEC's "The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant" more Christian

Could the liturgy, produced at GC 2012,

"The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant", be modified to reflect orthodox teachings? I propose a modified version of the rite which explicitly requires a vow of celibacy and chastity from the two participants.​

 

Hello Hackney,

Can you give a bit more information about the blessing of a lifelong covenant to this non Anglican? what exactly is this for?

 

It's the liturgy put out by GC 2012 to bless same-sex relationships. Most conservatives simply excuse the venture as non-Christian. I think we could look at it from a different angle... if gay couples would like to be blessed by the Church, then they will have to modify their behavior to match the morality of the Bible (which condemns homosexual behavior). Why not use this liturgy to that effect? Orthodox dioceses in TEC can modify the liturgical resources with the diocesan bishop's approval.

 

Here's a pamphlet on this matter: http://www.claimingtheblessing.org/files/pdf/CTBTheology_Final_.pdf

 

That's an interesting idea, I'm not sure what I think of it yet. I hope others will respond

 

In essence, are you not asking that two men or women who lust strongly after one another simply live as Christian brothers or sisters under the same roof? If so, it's just an invitation to scandal, stumbling, and falling.

Even with the proposed changes requiring celibacy, it does nothing but add another service among the huge variety of confused services. You might as well have a special blessing for siblings who live together for financial purposes. Why not? Blessing a "gay couple who are celibate" makes no sense because they're still identifying as gay, not primarily as human beings. That alone shows that they have no intention of thinking, feeling, living, and praying in a celibate fashion. They just want to be able to say "the Church blessed our relationship", and claim another triumph for the progressive agenda.

As a human being who would be identified as "LGBT" by the liberals, I am insulted by the condescending attitude of all these old heterosexual WASPs telling me trite things that I already know, such as “homosexual persons are children of God who have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance and pastoral concern and care of the Church [...] There are, however, many more places where they are still not fully included in the life of the church". That's rubbish! I'm a child of God by grace, faith, baptism, and in Christ. I am welcome to the Lord's Table because of this profession & grace wherein I stand. Have I been discriminated against due to some sort of imagined ontological difference? No. I'm a person, and a Christian, and that's that. I'd expect no sexual immorality to be blessed in a church of Christ.

"Identifying as a gay couple" already excludes two people from Biblical morality. A man leaves his parents to cleave to his wife, period. I thank God for the gift of total honest celibacy in my life, and pray that all these poor people will accept it too.

 

God bless you for your strength and your honesty. Perhaps your example will lead others to make the same choice.

 

It would be an honour to be a "victim" to use for the defense of orthodoxy; however, my example isn't much of an example, considering the fact that I don't inform anyone of it. A heterosexual doesn't go around telling strangers whether he's a "legs man" or any other sexual preference. My "orientation" is a matter between myself and God. He gives grace; I try to obey. I fall; He lifts me up.

Unfortunately this is the age of the triumph of "Enlightenment Theology". Every truth is treated as personal, subjective, and relative. It's the only reason TEC could even consider this blessing. The Scriptures - old and new - are just an old cultural document, and we have to take things that fit our culture, rejecting "outmoded" things. That seems to be the prevailing attitude.

I believe that all the old heterosexual WASPs have caved in to the "Gay Agenda" here because they are afraid that their religion might not actually be true. Whenever an atheist yells "ah, the Old Testament forbade sowing two different crops together, and breeding two kinds of cattle, as well as homosexual acts!" and the poor Christian-liberals say "ah, what a shame! Let's just love one another and let everyone do what he will do!" - but, quite apart from that improper reading of Leviticus, the Law has been fulfilled entirely by Christ anyway! Only that which was renewed in the New Testament is continued.

The Holy Spirit confirms the ban on sexual immorality as unworthy of human dignity - and that includes sexual intercourse outside marriage. Since marriage is between man and wife, it's literally impossible for the act of love to be fully consummate otherwise. This is why Paul forbids same-sex lusting and "loving", in Romans and 1 Corinthians. Notice that God never condemns people who have this deep inner sense of self - rather, He condemns the acts, the lusting, and the degradation of other human beings by these perverse imaginings. To "be gay" isn't a sin; to act it out for pleasure & defiance against human nature - there's the sin!

We must pray for the peace of Jerusalem to descend upon the hearts and minds of honest heterosexual bishops, and the homosexual activists, that they may have a right faith in all obedience with love! Those who want to have same-sex blessings want Christ as Friend, Brother, and Saviour, but not Christ as Creator, Judge, and Lord.

 

Agreed. Even in our pseudo conservative Diocese here in Indiana, they held a gay "wedding" in a small Indianapolis parish about a month ago, but since Indiana doesn't acknowledge or sanction gay marriage, it was ceremonial at best. My personal opinion is that it was just a PR/media stunt for the liberal agenda.