Splitting the Hairs.....

The Anglicans did it.

They split theological hairs.

It's not too surprising to me. The limited amount of time I have spent in the Anglican churches and tradition I have seen deep thinking from most Anglicans who get invovled in Synod and in leadership. The scholarship is quite detailed, and they do know thier scripture and interpretations of the Bible very well.

Basically, they divided the issue into two motions:

1. Does the blessings of same-sex unions violate the CORE beliefs of the Anglican church?

and

2. Will we allow individual dioceses to bless same-sex unions?

They are NOT the same question to the Anglicans who were at the meeting. In thier minds, they are completely different.

The Anglican church is a rather unique denomination in that it doesn't have a central figure (like the pope) or a central document (like a creed or theological statement like Luther's) to point to as a reference for theological thinking. Instead, it points to the prayer book and other historical documents to guide the interpretation of scripture.

I won't try to explain the sources here - Wikipeadia's entry on the Anglican Doctrine does this in much more detail.

What does it boil down to? In the church's overall mandate to reach others for Christ - the blessings of the unions doesn't really matter......

BUT

The majority of the people at the Synod don't believe that the blessing of the unions should occur.

This is going to be called many things - it has already. Confusing (CBC) is one term we are going to hear a lot of. Bigotry is another we will hear as well.

Both stem from not seeing a difference between the two motions.

Like I said - splitting hairs.

ADDED JUNE 25

After reading Chester's comment, and checking out the Anglican Church's site, (Thanks, Chester), I found the results of the voting.

Synod 2007 Winnipeg

The Anglicans have arrived....

Seriously, we are hosting Linda (Suzanne's mom) as she attends Synod - from a distance. She's not a delegate, but here as a member of Essentials. She's working in the hospitality suite and in the prayer room.

It's nice to have her here. We're hearing a lot about how synod starts, and she came back this evening with a few encouraging stories to share.