From California (where else?) comes word that the Bishop of the Episcopal Church Diocese there is advising his clergy to encourage couples to marry outside the Church!
The Diocese states two reasons for their directive:
1. The controversy over same-sex unions.
2. A concern over couples who marry, but never return to the Church.
First of all, don't think for one minute that reason number two has anything to do with this perverse directive. Yes, I'm sure that there is, and has always been, a frustration over couples who "rent" the Church for their big day, with no intention of ever setting foot there again. Even my own Pastor has voiced a concern over this. He even confessed to a kind of "burn out" with it after so many years, but being the kind of person he is, he hangs in on the belief that if he just succeeds in getting 2% of those couples to make a commitment to Church as well as themselves, then he has done some good.
No the real reason in California has much more to do with the nature of my Church today. Not enough strength of conviction to say NO to gay and lesbian couples, and yet not willing to further isolate the rest of us who are tiring of the Church's abandonment of traditional doctrine. So I guess their answer is to cop out! Throw another Holy Sacrament in the trash. It is enough to make one literally sick. Even the gays are upset!
I don't know where it will all end.
Yes I do; five centuries (or so) will be the lifespan of this little branch of Christianity. King Henry's and Cromwell's great experiment is slowly and inexorably being bled to death by leaders with less conviction and compass than they had in one little finger.
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