If the Church should consider committed same-sex relationships blessed by God, should it do so as a part of the practice of Christian marriage that we have not yet recognized, or rather as an analogous yet distinct good that we have not yet named? The answer is NO on both counts. Same-sex relationships have never been countenanced by God and General Convention won’t change God’s mind for Him.

If Episcopal delegates to General Convention pass two marriage resolutions in Salt Lake City later this month, it could seal the fate of any hope that the Anglican Communion can hold together, a Covenant notwithstanding. The worst fears of GAFCON Primates and Global South archbishops will have been realized — the Episcopal Church will never repent of its sexual innovations thus sealing forever the unity of the Anglican Communion as an attainable goal.

It is over. Never again will an Archbishop of Canterbury be able to call a meeting of his fellow primates; at least a third will be no shows. Ditto for a Lambeth Conference. Rowan Williams sowed to the wind and Justin Welby has reaped the whirlwind.

It is both ironic and sad that once staunch and loyal opposition defenders of The Episcopal Church like theologians Ephraim Radner and Philip Turner with the Anglican Communion Institute now admit that the ecclesiastical jackboots (with pink Swastikas) knocking on their door are the new (Episcopal) totalitarians. “Alas, it appears that the season of our being driven out has begun. As individuals, our standing matters little. But a church that is in the grip of invective and political attempts to be rid of its articulate critics matters a great deal, at least in its loss of integrity,” the two theologians recently wrote. You can read in full what they had to say here: http://tinyurl.com/ohnocsu

Decisive acts to change the marriage canons, for which there will be little or just nominal opposition, could seal the fate of the remaining handful of orthodox bishops and the direction of the Anglican Communion.

Recently, two episcopal bishops (they were not Communion Partner bishops) shone a brief sliver of light into the dark (sex)cesses of the Episcopal swamp over the marriage canons like two mafia dons in jail for life just discovering the Sixth Commandment for the first time.

And so it came to pass that both Bishop Scott Benhase (Georgia) — a bishop who, by the way, said TREC, a plan to grow the church, was little more than “magical thinking” resulting in further guilt, blaming, and resentments — and Bishop Dorsey McConnell, (Pittsburgh) whose undeniable evangelical conversion never included a strong Biblical sexual ethic and allows his priests to use a rite for same sex coupling, now believe that the Episcopal Church will sabotage itself if the marriage canons are revised to allow sodomite unions to be formally blessed at GC2015.

In an article titled “A More Excellent Way” (a verse taken from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians 12: 31 where in the context of miraculous healings and speaking in tongues, the Apostle implored the Corinthians to desire the greater gifts), the two bishops now believe that “good order” in Salt Lake City means taking a step back from the abyss just in case TEC mistakenly plunges over the cliff into certain ecclesiastical oblivion.

For three years now two committees — the Task Force on the Study of Marriage and the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music (SCLM) with (Resolution A054) and the Revision of Marriage canons (A036) — have wrestled with the issue till the mats have flowed with ecclesiastical blood. They have attempted to square the circle over acts that have no biblical, ecclesiastical, theological, or historical base.

Under the revision of marriage canon (Resolution A036), the two bishops argue that there are serious and substantive theological, biblical, ecumenical, and Anglican Communion issues that warn against revising canons I.18.2 and I.18.3, which describe marriage as we have received it from Scripture and tradition. Really.

Another Resolution (2012-A050) said that any work done on revising the canons should be done in conversation “with our ecumenical and Anglican Communion partners.” The two bishops say this was never done. Well, of course not. Why in the world would you ask any African, South American, or Asian primate to go along with this if you know the answer is no before you even begin. Does anyone think that Archbishops Nicholas Okoh (Nigeria) or Eliud Wabukala (Kenya) would welcome such revisions with open arms? Of course not. So the answer is, don’t ask them. There now that settles that. It’s a wonder that Mr. Philip Groves, the infamous “Listening Process” facilitator, wasn’t asked to hawk it around the globe; he is the perfect front for TEC. They pay his salary.

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