Bay State ECUSA Bishop Draws Conservative Anglican Condemnation
by Jim Brown
December 6, 2005
(AgapePress) - - A conservative Anglican theologian is denouncing the Episcopal Bishop of Massachusetts, Bishop Thomas Shaw, for presiding over a so-called "nuptial mass" for a homosexual couple immediately after their "wedding." Shaw recently celebrated the Eucharist, the Episcopal rite of Holy Communion, at the same-sex wedding of two men who, reportedly, had their first date in a monastery.
According to Anglican insider David Virtue, Bishop Shaw is "a leading contender to replace Frank Griswold as Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church." But Anglican theologian Dr. Kendall Harmon says the Massachusetts church leader has chosen to ignore a document addressing the crisis in the worldwide Anglican Communion, the "Windsor Report," which calls on the Episcopal Church to stop blessing same-sex unions.
"The Bishop of Massachusetts, by doing this, is again showing tremendous disrespect for the rest of the Anglican Communion, who have been pleading for restraint on the part of the Episcopal Church," Harmon says. "It's just another example of the Western arrogance that is underneath so much of the Episcopal Church's actions, and they're making a bad situation much worse."
The conservative theologian is condemning Bishop Shaw for his involvement in the recent same-sex marriage ceremony and the subsequent "nuptial mass." Harmon says he was disturbed recently, while reading the wedding announcements section of the New York Times newspaper, to learn that the two homosexual men met in a monastery and that Bishop Shaw has approved their relationship.
However, that was not all that disturbed Dr. Harmon in the Times account. "The second thing it said was that one of the two involved in this relationship is a candidate for the ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church," he says. "And the third thing, which is the most frustrating, was that this civil ceremony concluded with the Eucharist, and the person who presided at the service of Holy Communion at this clearly very high flying, high society gathering was the Bishop of Massachusetts."
The Rev. Dr. Kendall Harmon is Canon Theologian of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina and has emerged as one of North America's leading voices of orthodox Anglicanism, upholding the traditional teaching of Christian Holy Scripture.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
