Crazy Catholics & Mediocre Anglicans

Here we go again - those crazy Catholics are moving to make clearer a stance that they've long held. Link (for as long as it lasts) to one of the Age articles is here.

I think my favourite quote from this article is this one:

Father Richard John Neuhaus, for example, one of the church's most conservative commentators, wrote in 2002 that "it seems more than likely that, in centuries past, some priests who have been canonised as saints would meet today's criteria as having a homosexual orientation".

It's interesting at the moment to see the issue progressing, from a slightly closer vantage point, within the Anglican Church. I'm picking up (and filing mostly) a fair chunk of mail from the position of General Secretary to the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea (ACPNG). And there are a constant stream of emails/letters around the topic.

I found this quote, from this article, interesting also:
"So why aren't liberals fighting back? In a recent sermon, the Rev Canon Marilyn McCord Adams, regius professor of divinity at Oxford University, offers a view few are prepared to admit: "One whispered reason why many personally convinced liberals do not act is 'postcolonial guilt'"

Good article.

I've heard some say the issue is a bit passe now. I've heard others saying about how you shouldn't talk about the issue b/c you're not gay (it's not for you to understand) -: sounds like bollocks to me. When you see the theology and teaching at a local level in a developing country - informed by a world-wide communion - these debtates take on another level of importance. Hopefully the church, partly being my church, somehow manages to pull it's collective brains into the mid-20th century sometime soon. Of course, I realise my opinions are quite different to many of my Christian friends - but *shrug* regardless of your views, this latest push by the Catholics is OTT.

Here endeth the rant.