At its General Synod on 11–13 June, the Scottish Episcopal Church (to be distinguished from the Church of Scotland) will vote on proposals to allow its ministers to solemnise same sex marriages.
The SEC has a membership of about 35,000 in 310 parishes with seven bishops. Small it may be in number, but in terms of how Anglicans address this issue the vote will be significant. By the time you read this the vote will have been taken.
More holes than a Swiss cheese
The proposal for their General Synod is built on a 40 page paper whose theology and argument has more holes in it than a Swiss cheese. But none of the options it proposes is acceptable to biblically faithful orthodox Anglicans in the SEC.
While the flawed paper needs to be shown for what it is, intellectual and rational discussion will not overturn its proposals, for two reasons.
The first is the nature of synodical debates. US theologian Philip Turner describes these, at least in the USA, as ‘what parades as reflection and dialogue on the whole is no more than impassioned repetition in a politically controlled space of hardened positions’.
The second is that same sex activists do not use reason to advance their cause. Like Monty Python’s ‘Spanish Inquisition’, they have two weapons, not fear and surprise but emotion and power.
Their speeches are emotive stories of subjective experience which, by their very nature, cannot be challenged. Those who espouse faithful, biblical obedience need to counter with their own stories of lives redeemed and changed, and of the results of teaching and modelling faithful and healthy marriage in families and churches.
Their other weapon is power, in many cases the power of an unelected media elite and of the state. The debate is being carried on in England, Scotland and, most recently, Ireland, with powerful secular forces who want to redefine and control everything, especially in the bedroom and in what is taught to children.
The message of marriage
And here is the crux of the matter. Many were stunned by the outcome of the Irish referendum on same sex marriage. How could a historically Roman Catholic country be the first to make such a decision in such a way? In 1961, 75% of the population respected the church. By 2015 that had dropped to 10%. One answer is that the church had failed in its task of teaching the next generation the goods of man-woman marriage.
But ask yourself when you last heard from the pulpit a reasoned biblical exposition of the goods of man-woman marriage, and of the nature of intercourse as meaning ‘you only for me, for life, and responsibility for any children conceived’. Thus pre-marital sex is de facto marriage or, if not, should be regarded as either hypocrisy or fraud or no more meaningful than a peck on the cheek. The fact that infertile couples can marry is no counter-argument. The complementarity in the world is between male and female, not male/male or female/female.
At least one parent
Research by the Pew Foundation in the USA has shown that children grow up to value Christian standards on marriage and sexuality when at least one parent advocates them and where a teenager finds similar views supported by a respected outsider, a ‘cool adult figure’ such as a youth leader or summer camp organiser.
Can anything happen to stop the traffic, like a magnificent stag in the middle of the road bringing lines of vehicles to an amazed halt? It cannot be expected that the disapproval of the African Anglican Churches would cut any ice. First, they are scorned with a liberal distaste by activists and, secondly, their current opposition is as much cultural as theological. Without regular Christian teaching their young people are as vulnerable to the new illiberal orthodoxy as those in Ireland.
An alternative may be proposed in the synod debate to provide pastoral accommodation for those clergy who will clearly state that they reject the church’s teachings and canons on marriage and will obey Caesar rather than God by accommodating to the state’s practice of conducting same sex marriage. But what is also needed are Christian people who will teach the goods of man-woman marriage in their families and the Christian community.
Vinay Samuel points out that religion is not only expressed in beliefs but also in institutions, in worship, order, rituals, nurture of children and young people and in the networks of families of Christian communities. The question is whether space can be secured in the SEC and other Anglican churches in the future for orthodox teaching and practice. If the church does not witness to this truth, who will? Such space cannot be guaranteed in the church for the next century. But it can be contended for for the next generation. David Holloway, rector of Jesmond Parish Church, argues that we need to build bridges to the future we want as we cross them. So will anyone be able to stop the traffic in Scotland?
