The ongoing struggle around the church acknowledging the marriage of same-sex couples is disheartening, to say the least.
A strength of the Anglican church historically has been its ability to respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit in local dioceses. It would be really sad to compromise this strength in regard to the marriage canon.
The fact is, our society has moved on; it has already acknowledged the reality that gay, straight and transgendered people are equally able to make lifetime commitments in marriage, regardless of what the church has to say.
To hold this up any longer is just to make the church increasingly irrelevant in normal mainstream society, when church-people, clergy and laity alike struggle daily to present the gospel in a way that makes it relevant in the day-to-day lives of people. In our baptismal covenant, we promise to respect the dignity of everyone and strive for justice among all people. Please don’t force us to compromise these promises any longer.
There are so many other issues that the church needs to deal with, like climate change, euthanasia, environmental degradation and the widening gap between rich and poor. It is long past time to move on.
The Rev. Cathy Miller
Meaford, Ont.