Church of England's Homosexual 'Marriage' Compromise Has Theologian Concerned
by Jim Brown
August 3, 2005
(AgapePress) - While the Episcopal Church USA continues to affirm and bless homosexual relationships, the Church of England is now allowing homosexual clergy to marry if they promise to abstain from sex.
Last week the Church of England's House of Bishops issued a statement approving "sexless marriage" for homosexual clergy. The church says it will treat these marriages as civil partnerships without giving them the status of marital relationships. However, conservative Anglican theologian Dr. Kendall Harmon fears the Episcopal Church and other liberal Anglicans will use the policy to further their cause.
Harmon, who serves as Canon Theologian of the Diocese of South Carolina, feels the Church of England's new stance has created a bizarre and awkward situation that is poised to foster deception. "First of all, on the clergy side," he says, "people who are in partnerships that are in fact sexual partnerships as well as personal partnerships are not necessarily going to have strong incentive to tell the bishop that they are, in fact, in a sexual partnership because, if they do, they are potentially subject to discipline."
The conservative Anglican says the House of Bishops' decision to allow homosexual clergy to marry is fraught with problems. Among other things, he believes the move will further incense those who are trying to revive the church's teaching because "they are going to increasingly see the glaring inconsistency of the Church of England's stance, especially if the bishops do not call for the kind of honesty that's required to make this work."
The London Telegraph newspaper reports that homosexual activists claim more than 700 clergy are "lining up to marry their same-sex partners." But ultimately, Harmon says the Church of England's approval of homosexual partnerships for clergy will only worsen the current crisis the Anglican Church is in over the issue of sex outside traditional, biblical marriage.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
