DAMNED IF YOU DO
Georgia Episcopal Bishop Scott Benhase on homosexual marriages in his diocese:
I want to first remind us all of some recent history. Earlier this year, anticipating General Convention, I wrote the Diocese explaining the challenges before us, as I understood them. I stated clearly that during the search process for the 10th Bishop of Georgia, I articulated my support for the Church establishing a Blessing Rite for same sex couples. That support remains and has not wavered. I stated after my consecration, however, that no Blessing Rite would be used in the Diocese of Georgia until the Church took formal action to authorize such a rite. My interpretation of past General Convention actions, prior to 2012, led me to conclude that such specific authorization had never truly occurred.
I also pointed out that my understanding of Holy Matrimony is that it can only be between a man and woman, regardless of what secular governments understand it to be. Secular understandings of marriage should not shape how the Church understands Holy Matrimony. Of course, we know that the culture does shape our thoughts, at least to some extent. It is nearly impossible to hermetically seal the Church off from cultural influences. Nevertheless, I must make decisions as free of cultural influences as possible and rather focus all discernment through the lens of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, and his grace bestowed in the New Covenant. Thus, in my judgment, any Blessing Rite that is authorized in the Diocese of Georgia had to be plainly distinguished from Holy Matrimony in order to receive my approval.
The Rite approved by General Convention in July of this year failed, in my judgment, to plainly distinguish between Holy Matrimony and a Blessing. The enabling resolution for the Rite that was passed, however, provided Diocesan Bishops with the ability to “adapt” the Rite for use in their respective dioceses. I had hoped the language would have authorized something more expansive than “adaption,” but that did not happen. So, we must work within the structures of what the Church has decided. None of this is perfect. We all look “through a glass darkly,” as St Paul reminds us. I am unconcerned by what is politically, socially, or culturally expedient, or what will be the majority opinion. I am concerned with doing what is right in the eyes of God.
I have discerned that we in the Diocese of Georgia will offer a Rite of Blessing for our homosexual sisters and brothers using the adapted rite found in Appendix 1. This will be the only Rite authorized in the Diocese of Georgia. In Appendix 2, you will find criteria for how the Rite may be offered in the Diocese of Georgia. These criteria are not suggestions. They are expected provisions and guidelines required of clergy and lay leaders who discern within their congregation that they should offer the Rite.
It should go without saying, but I will say it here because uninformed people often create needless alarm. No congregation or priest is required to offer such a rite. The criteria in Appendix 2 requires formal discernment between the parochial priest in charge and the vestry before it may be offered in the congregation and that discernment must be first initiated by the parochial priest. That means I will not allow non-parochial priests (or any deacon) to preside at such a Blessing Rite disconnected from a pastoral cure in a congregation. They may, however, assist the Rector, Vicar, or Priest-in-Charge of the Congregation at the Rite.
Doubtless some may conclude from the requirements in Appendix 2 that I am requiring an unfairly high threshold of mutual consent that is not required of other rites of the Church. I certainly understand how some may reach such a conclusion and I am not unsympathetic to the claim. For some my decision will go too far. For others my decision will not go far enough. I understand.
Nevertheless, as your Bishop I must lead us through this in the best way I can given the constraints present and the diversity of positions we respectively hold in the Diocese of Georgia.
Proving yet again that there is only one sin left in the Episcopal Organization, the EpiscoLefties at Naughton’s rip Benhase a new one. The Swan of Newark leads off.
As if the culture isn’t in the church and the church isn’t in the culture in “traditional marriage”.
Honest to Pete! When will the institutional church and its purple princes learn that you can dress it up in fancy vestments, use theological language and blow holy smoke from a turible all around it but that won’t change a thing. It still looks and smells like prejudice.
Then again, I’m thinking at least some of the folks in GA are quite familiar with “separate but equal”. Separate water fountains and sitting in the back of the bus were eventually ruled for what they are “prejudice”. As I recall, the church assisted in the process of helping the government to see through the charade and to look at the injustice.
Isn’t it interesting that now that the shoe is on the other foot in another issue, the church is the one saying, “Segregation yesterday. Segregation today. Segregation forevah.”
Lizzie? Those weren’t homosexuals chained up and stuffed into those ships. Lauren Stanley really needs to use her inside voice.
“Of course, we know that the culture does shape our thoughts, at least to some extent. It is nearly impossible to hermetically seal the Church off from cultural influences. Nevertheless, I must make decisions as free of cultural influences as possible and rather focus all discernment through the lens of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, and his grace bestowed in the New Covenant.”
I understand what the bishop thinks he is trying to say, but it is, at heart, delusional to say we are not formed by our culture. JESUS was formed by HIS culture, and no one seems to have minded THAT! PAUL was formed by HIS culture – and we argue over that all the time.
This marvelous blessing that we call “life” never takes place in a vacuum. And neither does God. God does not simply “exist” outside of everything – God exists in US.
So please: If you don’t agree, that’s fine. But please don’t pretend that we can ever exist outside of our existence (which is another way to say, “culture.”)
Homosexual Bishop Gene Robinson, who is a homosexual, homosexually whines that Benhase actually seems to be taking this “diversity of opinion in the Episcopal Organization” crap seriously.
If I were a committed gay couple and looked at this, my reaction would be: “Is that it? Is that all? A 2-minute sidebar diversion, buried in a eucharist?! The blessing of a new altar frontal takes longer!”. And can you imagine what committed straight couples would say if this were all THEY were offered in blessing their relationships??!!
I suppose the Bishop of Georgia has the right to do what he has done, in “adapting” the authorized rite — although even in Parliamentary Procedure, when a resolution is so profoundly altered that the original is no longer remotely present, it is not an “amended” resolution, but a “substitute!”
IMHO, Bishop Benhase offers a “substitute,” and a deplorable, weak and unacceptable one at that!
Jeffrey Shy, M. D. reads the fine print.
(1) This is such a radical adaptation of the Rite that it renders any references to the GC approved Rite meaningless.
(2) The process for allowing this to occur is cumbersome in the extreme. The priest of the parish must “initiate” consideration. If not, then it is a non-starter. It requires a 2/3 majority of the Vestry to approve its use.
(3) At least one of the couple must be a member of the congregation in which the rite is offered. This closes off any real possibility of getting the rite in a parish not one’s “own,” meaning, forget about going to Atlanta to do it. You would have to leave your parish to get it if they are not offering it. Great way to clear out the queers from your ranks?
(4). The couple must sign a document of understanding that this Rite does not now and never will confer any civil rights. It is not “Matrimony” and that they affirm that “Matrimony” is between “one man and one woman.”
Yeah, doc, “clearing out the queers” is exactly why Benhase did it. Ass. Homosexual Canon Susan Russell of Apostasy West, who is a homosexual, homosexually descends from Mount Homosexual Sinai to once again homosexually remind us all that as far as The Issue is concerned, there is only one correct homosexual answer.
Let’s not do political, societal or cultural … let’s do Bible. Jesus did not send the Syrophoenician woman away with crumbs from under the table – he healed her daughter. And yet that’s what the Bishop of Georgia offers the LGBT baptized in his diocese – crumbs from under the table rather than the rite for blessing authorized by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Methinks the Bishop of Georgia’s concern about “doing what is right in the eyes of God” would be well served by doing a little remedial reading on the work and witness of the Radical Rabbi of Nazareth.
My heart aches for those who will receive from these cavalier and condescending crumbs offered by this “pastoral letter” another slap in the face from the institutional church rather than a welcoming embrace by the Body of Christ. By offering this pathetic substitute — which the Bishop of New Hampshire has called “deplorable, weak and unacceptable” — the Bishop of Georgia has perpetuated the heresy that LGBT people have some kind of second-class baptism that entitles them to only a percentage of the sacraments.
Having the “right” as bishop diocesan to make this choice does not make it the right choice – for the proclamation of the gospel or for the LGBT people in his pastoral care — and it is precisely an act like this that draws into sharp relief how much work there still is to do to make the 1976 promise of “full and equal claim” to the LGBT baptized a reality and not just a resolution in the Episcopal Church.
Homosexual.
PDSAOUSA turned out to be an short-lived acronym. Give it up for the People’s Democratic Socialist Homosexual Anglican Organization of the United States of America(PDSHAOUSA).
I want to first remind us all of some recent history. Earlier this year, anticipating General Convention, I wrote the Diocese explaining the challenges before us, as I understood them. I stated clearly that during the search process for the 10th Bishop of Georgia, I articulated my support for the Church establishing a Blessing Rite for same sex couples. That support remains and has not wavered. I stated after my consecration, however, that no Blessing Rite would be used in the Diocese of Georgia until the Church took formal action to authorize such a rite. My interpretation of past General Convention actions, prior to 2012, led me to conclude that such specific authorization had never truly occurred.
I also pointed out that my understanding of Holy Matrimony is that it can only be between a man and woman, regardless of what secular governments understand it to be. Secular understandings of marriage should not shape how the Church understands Holy Matrimony. Of course, we know that the culture does shape our thoughts, at least to some extent. It is nearly impossible to hermetically seal the Church off from cultural influences. Nevertheless, I must make decisions as free of cultural influences as possible and rather focus all discernment through the lens of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, and his grace bestowed in the New Covenant. Thus, in my judgment, any Blessing Rite that is authorized in the Diocese of Georgia had to be plainly distinguished from Holy Matrimony in order to receive my approval.
The Rite approved by General Convention in July of this year failed, in my judgment, to plainly distinguish between Holy Matrimony and a Blessing. The enabling resolution for the Rite that was passed, however, provided Diocesan Bishops with the ability to “adapt” the Rite for use in their respective dioceses. I had hoped the language would have authorized something more expansive than “adaption,” but that did not happen. So, we must work within the structures of what the Church has decided. None of this is perfect. We all look “through a glass darkly,” as St Paul reminds us. I am unconcerned by what is politically, socially, or culturally expedient, or what will be the majority opinion. I am concerned with doing what is right in the eyes of God.
I have discerned that we in the Diocese of Georgia will offer a Rite of Blessing for our homosexual sisters and brothers using the adapted rite found in Appendix 1. This will be the only Rite authorized in the Diocese of Georgia. In Appendix 2, you will find criteria for how the Rite may be offered in the Diocese of Georgia. These criteria are not suggestions. They are expected provisions and guidelines required of clergy and lay leaders who discern within their congregation that they should offer the Rite.
It should go without saying, but I will say it here because uninformed people often create needless alarm. No congregation or priest is required to offer such a rite. The criteria in Appendix 2 requires formal discernment between the parochial priest in charge and the vestry before it may be offered in the congregation and that discernment must be first initiated by the parochial priest. That means I will not allow non-parochial priests (or any deacon) to preside at such a Blessing Rite disconnected from a pastoral cure in a congregation. They may, however, assist the Rector, Vicar, or Priest-in-Charge of the Congregation at the Rite.
Doubtless some may conclude from the requirements in Appendix 2 that I am requiring an unfairly high threshold of mutual consent that is not required of other rites of the Church. I certainly understand how some may reach such a conclusion and I am not unsympathetic to the claim. For some my decision will go too far. For others my decision will not go far enough. I understand.
Nevertheless, as your Bishop I must lead us through this in the best way I can given the constraints present and the diversity of positions we respectively hold in the Diocese of Georgia.
Proving yet again that there is only one sin left in the Episcopal Organization, the EpiscoLefties at Naughton’s rip Benhase a new one. The Swan of Newark leads off.
As if the culture isn’t in the church and the church isn’t in the culture in “traditional marriage”.
Honest to Pete! When will the institutional church and its purple princes learn that you can dress it up in fancy vestments, use theological language and blow holy smoke from a turible all around it but that won’t change a thing. It still looks and smells like prejudice.
Then again, I’m thinking at least some of the folks in GA are quite familiar with “separate but equal”. Separate water fountains and sitting in the back of the bus were eventually ruled for what they are “prejudice”. As I recall, the church assisted in the process of helping the government to see through the charade and to look at the injustice.
Isn’t it interesting that now that the shoe is on the other foot in another issue, the church is the one saying, “Segregation yesterday. Segregation today. Segregation forevah.”
Lizzie? Those weren’t homosexuals chained up and stuffed into those ships. Lauren Stanley really needs to use her inside voice.
“Of course, we know that the culture does shape our thoughts, at least to some extent. It is nearly impossible to hermetically seal the Church off from cultural influences. Nevertheless, I must make decisions as free of cultural influences as possible and rather focus all discernment through the lens of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, and his grace bestowed in the New Covenant.”
I understand what the bishop thinks he is trying to say, but it is, at heart, delusional to say we are not formed by our culture. JESUS was formed by HIS culture, and no one seems to have minded THAT! PAUL was formed by HIS culture – and we argue over that all the time.
This marvelous blessing that we call “life” never takes place in a vacuum. And neither does God. God does not simply “exist” outside of everything – God exists in US.
So please: If you don’t agree, that’s fine. But please don’t pretend that we can ever exist outside of our existence (which is another way to say, “culture.”)
Homosexual Bishop Gene Robinson, who is a homosexual, homosexually whines that Benhase actually seems to be taking this “diversity of opinion in the Episcopal Organization” crap seriously.
If I were a committed gay couple and looked at this, my reaction would be: “Is that it? Is that all? A 2-minute sidebar diversion, buried in a eucharist?! The blessing of a new altar frontal takes longer!”. And can you imagine what committed straight couples would say if this were all THEY were offered in blessing their relationships??!!
I suppose the Bishop of Georgia has the right to do what he has done, in “adapting” the authorized rite — although even in Parliamentary Procedure, when a resolution is so profoundly altered that the original is no longer remotely present, it is not an “amended” resolution, but a “substitute!”
IMHO, Bishop Benhase offers a “substitute,” and a deplorable, weak and unacceptable one at that!
Jeffrey Shy, M. D. reads the fine print.
(1) This is such a radical adaptation of the Rite that it renders any references to the GC approved Rite meaningless.
(2) The process for allowing this to occur is cumbersome in the extreme. The priest of the parish must “initiate” consideration. If not, then it is a non-starter. It requires a 2/3 majority of the Vestry to approve its use.
(3) At least one of the couple must be a member of the congregation in which the rite is offered. This closes off any real possibility of getting the rite in a parish not one’s “own,” meaning, forget about going to Atlanta to do it. You would have to leave your parish to get it if they are not offering it. Great way to clear out the queers from your ranks?
(4). The couple must sign a document of understanding that this Rite does not now and never will confer any civil rights. It is not “Matrimony” and that they affirm that “Matrimony” is between “one man and one woman.”
Yeah, doc, “clearing out the queers” is exactly why Benhase did it. Ass. Homosexual Canon Susan Russell of Apostasy West, who is a homosexual, homosexually descends from Mount Homosexual Sinai to once again homosexually remind us all that as far as The Issue is concerned, there is only one correct homosexual answer.
Let’s not do political, societal or cultural … let’s do Bible. Jesus did not send the Syrophoenician woman away with crumbs from under the table – he healed her daughter. And yet that’s what the Bishop of Georgia offers the LGBT baptized in his diocese – crumbs from under the table rather than the rite for blessing authorized by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Methinks the Bishop of Georgia’s concern about “doing what is right in the eyes of God” would be well served by doing a little remedial reading on the work and witness of the Radical Rabbi of Nazareth.
My heart aches for those who will receive from these cavalier and condescending crumbs offered by this “pastoral letter” another slap in the face from the institutional church rather than a welcoming embrace by the Body of Christ. By offering this pathetic substitute — which the Bishop of New Hampshire has called “deplorable, weak and unacceptable” — the Bishop of Georgia has perpetuated the heresy that LGBT people have some kind of second-class baptism that entitles them to only a percentage of the sacraments.
Having the “right” as bishop diocesan to make this choice does not make it the right choice – for the proclamation of the gospel or for the LGBT people in his pastoral care — and it is precisely an act like this that draws into sharp relief how much work there still is to do to make the 1976 promise of “full and equal claim” to the LGBT baptized a reality and not just a resolution in the Episcopal Church.
Homosexual.
PDSAOUSA turned out to be an short-lived acronym. Give it up for the People’s Democratic Socialist Homosexual Anglican Organization of the United States of America(PDSHAOUSA).
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