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For information purposes only. I'm not debating the position in the article.
I just found the following posted today (10-22-09) on the BBC News' website. Seems the European Church is changing:
Sweden church allows gay weddings |  Sweden's archbishop is broadly supportive of the move |
The Lutheran Church of Sweden - the country's largest - is to conduct same-sex marriages from next month. Around 70% of the church's 250-strong synod, or church board, voted to back the move, making it one of few global churches to allow gay marriage. Sweden's government introduced a new law in May allowing gay couples the same marriage rights as heterosexuals. Three-quarters of Swedes are members of the Lutheran church, though church attendance is low. The Lutheran Church says gay couples can now get married by any of its priests from the beginning of November. Individual priests will not be "forced" to perform same sex ceremonies, though substitutes will have to be found if they refuse. The church - which split from state control in 2000 - backed the government's decision to legalise gay marriage in May. But some clergy had questioned whether church ceremonies - and the term matrimony - should be reserved for heterosexual unions. Others opposed the move on the grounds it contravened the scriptures. Limited opposition In response, the Archbishop of Sweden, Anders Wejryd, told reporters: "For my part, the right decision was taken, but I can empathise with the many who believe this has gone too fast."
Sweden's largest gay rights group, the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL), welcomed the move. "[We] congratulate the Church of Sweden for its decision. [The church's] homosexual and bisexual members will finally be able to feel a little more welcome within society," the group said in a statement. Sweden was one of the first countries to give gay couples legal "partnership" rights, in the mid-1990s, and to allow gay couples to adopt children from 2002. It become the fifth European country, after the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Norway, to recognise same-sex marriage. |
GAY MARRIAGE IN EUROPE
Netherlands, legalised in 2000 Belgium, 2003 Spain, 2005 Norway, 2008 Sweden, 2009
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Within the last couple weeks I've received an email about the books entitled Conversations with God and Conversations with God for Teens. Here is my thought about these books:
I haven't seen these books, much less read them, to know whether what is being said about them is true. Regardless of that, if the nature of the books is contrary to a Christian's life then its just a bit more about the secular (worldly) society in which we live. And its the very same culture that the Apostles confronted with the churches in Corinth and Thessalonika and others. They didn't concern themselves about changing that culture rather they were concerned about those who had "put on Christ", their on-going conversion, and the call to faithfulness to Him. Christianity has never influenced anyone by war or protest or attack or assault or injury or insult; rather by our undaunted love for Christ and each other millions have come to Light because this love is not love as the world knows it, and its the love everyone really desires. So, let them write and sing and perform whatever they like (Matthew 24:38-39) but for us who believe there are three things: "faith, hope, and love - and the greatest of these is love".
As for me, my book of choice for conversing with God is Psalms: 150 songs that seem to encompass every human emotion and thought and need.
AMDG
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Cecil Frances Alexander
Hymn writer and poetess,
Dublin, 1818-1895
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.
Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colors,
He made their tiny wings.
The purple-headed mountain,
The river running by,
The sunset and the morning,
That brightens up the sky.
The cold wind in the winter,
The pleasant summer sun,
The ripe fruits in the garden,
He made them one by one.
He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell,
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all things well. |
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I'm reminded of the expression, the more things change, the more they stay the same, especially after this evening's preformance of "The Importance of being Earnest".
For those who don't know the play this quick exerpt from Wikipedia may help:
...a comic play by Oscar Wilde, it premiered on 14 February 1895 at the St. James's Theatre in London. Set in England during the late Victorian era, the play's humour derives in part from characters maintaining fictitious identities to escape unwelcome social obligations. It is replete with witty dialogue and satirizes some of the foibles and hypocrisy of late Victorian society. It has proved Wilde's most enduringly popular play.
Wilde was pointing out that institutions and people take on roles that are convenient but not necessarily useful.
So here on mychurch these last few weeks there's been all sorts of talk to not change page formats and to return to the older (meaning comfortable) format because it was better (meaning familiar). My experience of websites, their masters and administrators is that really the more they "impove" things the more its the same thing. Look carefully, they are just magicians using slide of hand tricks, its all the same just rearranged.
And while I'm thinking about the illusion called change or new or improved, isn't Wilde right? People and institutions may look to be doing new things but in reality its not, its just rearranged.
During tonight's intermissions my friends and I got to talking about the church, in this moment I mean the Roman Rite to which this group of friends belong. We were, with bitter-sweet reflection thinking about how in the early 1960's the church was on the cutting edge of reform, renewal. Documents abounded that promised change for societies and cultures. They spoke of social justice and equality, they promoted prophetic and dynamic missions. And people got excited. People began to respond to this call for change. Change is good. Change means life. Change means growth.
"A grain of wheat remains a grain of wheat, but if it dies (changes) it produces thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."
Now flash forward forty years.
With each day the church is retracting the energy and direction given it by the Holy Spirit. It is fast becoming the church of 1950. And the result is a stagnant institution that speaks to old women's piety and children's need for baptism. So for all the energy of change the institution remained the same.
Sadly, for the sake of comfort and familiarity many people call for the "old formats" and the trade-off is that anyone not familiar with the old formats meet a church that doesn't address their need.
The church, if it were true to the real charter given to it by the Holy Spirit it would be dynamic. It wouldn't be so concerned with devotions as it would be with justice. It wouldn't be so worried about rubrics as it would be with mercy. It would really try and make The Beatitudes (Matthew 5) real to a hurting world.
Why do we allow ourselves to fall into this "the more things change the more they stay the same" attitude? I guess because no one likes getting out of their comfort zone. Okay. But at what cost?
AMDG |
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So last Sunday I was making my way to a monthly dinner for clergy in Santa Fe, this little group is affectionally named Deanery R. It is quite simply a supper club for several of my friends to join in for good conversation, good food, laughs, and moments to churn the rumor mill. This gathering is one of the most important things I do each month.
Anyway, the men in the car I was in began talking about upcoming plans and we figured out that soon our table would have more people sitting at it. As soon as these other guys were identified I said, "Well, in my mind our table is always open. Everyone is welcome at this table."
Once I said it I wondered to myself where this idea came from. I think part of it might be because in recent weeks I've really been pushing the notion on mychurch that to be truly Christian one must render charity and mercy. In some blogs I've commented against shunning or acting in ways that isolate and judge. In some blogs I've taken the position that justice must be tempered by mercy.
And I ponder:
"the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out" John 6:37
"come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" Matthew 11:28
"when the disciples saw, they rebuked them but Jesus called them to Him and said, 'Let the little children come to me and do not forbid them" Luke 18:15ff
Jesus, who from infancy was rejected and scorned, who in adulthood was insulted and persecuted, who even in death prayed for his executioners, was a man of invitation, a man of welcome.
His invitation is open, always open. And so I in my life strive to be the same, not that its easy, 'cause I could name names of all the people who really bug me. But my pettiness needs to be, has to be overshadowed by my putting on Christ.
You know, I can't think of a person who has not been misunderstood, rejected, insulted, isolated or "put out" - sometimes in the name of what's right or tough love but I can't think of anyone who has gone through that without being injured and scarred.
So in the end I can say, my table is always open. My table has no strangers, just friends. My table has no outcasts, just guests. Ultimately my table bears no wrong and charity prevails.
You are welcome at my table regardless of who you are or your state in life. Really.
Are you ready to do the same? Really?
So for now come along, pull up a chair and take the load off because there's room at this table!
AMDG
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