What a grace-filled walk I had this evening! Though welcomed, but not sought, the powerful felt presence of God accompanied me on my walk. It was gift. It was grace. I have no meditative techniques, but I often find that God meets me on my walk. In fact, I plan to meet God on my walks. But tonight was special, because of the intensity of the Presence - truly the work of the Spirit of the Living God.
The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
I can but bow down in thanksgiving, and say, "Lord, I am not worthy, yet you grace me with your presence. I give you all praise, and honor, and glory, in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."
Friday, December 14, 2007
Fr. Jake On The Advent Letter To The Primates
Fr. Jake has an excellent post on the Archbishop of Canterbury's Advent letter to the primates of the Anglican Communion, which includes copious quotes and commentary. I'll leave it to others to parse the epistle and confine myself to brief comments.
It seems plain to me that the Archbishop still does not understand the polity of the Episcopal Church. It's not only bishops who make the rules. Lay persons and clergy really do have a place in the governance of the Episcopal Church.
It seems plain to me that the Archbishop still does not understand the polity of the Episcopal Church. It's not only bishops who make the rules. Lay persons and clergy really do have a place in the governance of the Episcopal Church.
From The Archbishop Of Canterbury
An excerpt from the Archbishop of Canterbury's Christmas Message to the Anglican Communion, December 14, 2007:
God loves the company of those who know their need, and that is why he comes at Christmas to stand with them, to live with them and to die and rise for them. He is the God who blesses the poor - not only those who are materially poor, but those who are without the 'riches' of self-satisfaction and complacency, those who know all too well how far they fall short of real and full humanity. And so we are to pass on that blessing to the poor of every sort, those who are without material resources and those who are 'poor in spirit' because they know their hunger and need. Let us ask ourselves honestly whose company we are ashamed to be seen in - and then ask where God would be. If he has embraced the failing and fragile world of human beings who know their needs, then we must be there with him.
Read the rest at the Anglican Communion News Service.
God loves the company of those who know their need, and that is why he comes at Christmas to stand with them, to live with them and to die and rise for them. He is the God who blesses the poor - not only those who are materially poor, but those who are without the 'riches' of self-satisfaction and complacency, those who know all too well how far they fall short of real and full humanity. And so we are to pass on that blessing to the poor of every sort, those who are without material resources and those who are 'poor in spirit' because they know their hunger and need. Let us ask ourselves honestly whose company we are ashamed to be seen in - and then ask where God would be. If he has embraced the failing and fragile world of human beings who know their needs, then we must be there with him.
Read the rest at the Anglican Communion News Service.
I Got Elphed
Lapin Elphed me and some other folks. Cool, isn't it? Go elf yourself.
UPDATE: Folks want to know: The dancers are the 16 year old MadPriest, That Kaeton Woman, me, and the ABC having a jolly old time.
UPDATE 2: Here's another version of my elfing, thanks to Ann.
UPDATE: Folks want to know: The dancers are the 16 year old MadPriest, That Kaeton Woman, me, and the ABC having a jolly old time.
UPDATE 2: Here's another version of my elfing, thanks to Ann.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Surprise! Jodie Foster Comes Out!
From the TimesOnline:
After guarding her private life fiercely for 15 years, Hollywood actress Jodie Foster has publicly acknowledged her lesbian partner.
The Oscar-winning actress thanked "my beautiful Cydney" after winning an award at the Women in Entertainment Power 100 breakfast in Los Angeles.
From the comments to the Times article:
Wouldn't it be great if one day this sort of thing was so inconsequential that nobody cared?
Yes, it would. No headlines. Just life.
After guarding her private life fiercely for 15 years, Hollywood actress Jodie Foster has publicly acknowledged her lesbian partner.
The Oscar-winning actress thanked "my beautiful Cydney" after winning an award at the Women in Entertainment Power 100 breakfast in Los Angeles.
From the comments to the Times article:
Wouldn't it be great if one day this sort of thing was so inconsequential that nobody cared?
Yes, it would. No headlines. Just life.
Bishop Jenkins On Public Housing In NOLA
Thanks to Ormonde at Through The Dust for the tip on the statement by Bishop Charles Jenkins on the plan to tear down public housing in New Orleans. Ormonde says:
My bishop, Charles Jenkins, has issued a statement opposing FEMA's decision to evict refugees from trailers and HUD's decision to bulldoze federal housing in New Orleans (already a city with many homeless).
This is, as Bishop Jenkins says, very much a moral issue. Bishop Jenkins' statement is here.
In this holy season, the decision has been made by FEMA that tens of thousands of families or individuals must leave their trailer homes by the spring of next year. Eviction notices are being posted even now. At the very same time, it has been decided by the Housing Authority of New Orleans and HUD that the bulk of the Federal Housing Projects in New Orleans are to be bulldozed to the ground this month. Many of those living in FEMA trailers do not have the resources to find other housing in the notoriously expensive New Orleans housing market. The Case Management system, which is designed to help citizens of the diaspora and those returned home deal with such challenges, is scheduled to end in March of 2008.
As a Christian, I am compelled to speak of the morality of these decisions. The issue is not simply one of housing or even subsidized housing. Rather, the issue before us is primarily a moral issue. The issue before us is not buildings, but people. As the Christ Child had no place but a manger to lay his head, so it is that many children in New Orleans and of the New Orleans diaspora have no place to call home. Shall America by policy treat our citizens as mere statistics or shall we respect the dignity of each person as a child of God? The numbers are huge, but as we were reminded by a thoughtful rabbi in the immediate aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center, each number represents a human being. It is not that tens of thousands shall be further displaced but that multitudes of human beings shall again be put out - one human being at a time.
The buildings are in disrepair, but they are well-built. They have good bones and could be repaired for much less money than rebuilding from scratch. The New Orleans Housing Authority was corrupt, and they mismanaged public housing in New Orleans for a good number of years. The feds, through HUD, took over management of the housing and didn't do much better in maintaining the buildings and keeping them safe for the residents who lived there. HANO is now back in charge.
Yesterday the bulldozing of the B. W. Cooper project was to begin, but protesters got in the way, and the operations were suspended. The New Orleans Times-Picayune has the story.
Dozens of protesters stalled plans by the Housing Authority of New Orleans to begin demolition of vacant buildings at the B.W. Cooper public housing development Wednesday, signaling the start of a contentious battle between what the government calls progress and dissenters view as an attack on the poor in post-Katrina New Orleans.
....
That fact meant nothing to the protesters, who managed to claim a victory, if only for one evening, as HANO and the city attorney's office agreed to halt demolition late Wednesday and possibly start fresh today.
....
Many residents of public housing reacted to the sight of the excavators with expressions of sadness and voiced distrust of the government's plans for "revitalization" of HANO's properties.
'It's home'
"It's not the lakefront, but it's home," said Ralph Lewis, 51, who was born and lived at Cooper until he evacuated before Katrina struck.
....
Tanya Davis, 44, said many of her missing neighbors are stuck in Texas or Georgia or Arkansas, waiting to come home.
....
Davis applied for her first "project," a one-bedroom apartment, more than a quarter-century ago, when she was a young mother. She got it.
"I started from there," she said. She's been working steadily ever since like most of her neighbors, she said. The ones who didn't work were disabled or senior citizens on a fixed income, people whom she and others helped by paying cab fare or fixing meals. "It was a tight-knit community. Everybody was close," she said.
The majority of the residents were working people, or they were elderly or disabled. The were not the deadbeats that we hear so much about. The powers have said that there is public housing that is now sitting vacant, but Bishop Jenkins addresses that point too.
Beware the claim that low cost housing is available and going unclaimed in New Orleans. There is more to this than empty apartments. The capacity of the growing homeless population in New Orleans and those of the Diaspora to qualify for these apartments, should they exist, is compromised. Without assistance, without case management, many do not have the ability to qualify for these apartments. So, if FEMA is putting people on the streets, many will decide that if they are going to be homeless, they would rather be homeless in New Orleans than in Houston or Atlanta. We face the potential of an extended situation not unlike that we saw in the Superdome immediately after Katrina.
Altogether, this statement from Bishop Jenkins is excellent. I admire greatly his advocacy on this issue. We need to hear from the leadership in the churches on matters of justice such as this. Thank you, Bishop Jenkins. Thank you, Ormonde, for calling attention to the bishop's statement.
My bishop, Charles Jenkins, has issued a statement opposing FEMA's decision to evict refugees from trailers and HUD's decision to bulldoze federal housing in New Orleans (already a city with many homeless).
This is, as Bishop Jenkins says, very much a moral issue. Bishop Jenkins' statement is here.
In this holy season, the decision has been made by FEMA that tens of thousands of families or individuals must leave their trailer homes by the spring of next year. Eviction notices are being posted even now. At the very same time, it has been decided by the Housing Authority of New Orleans and HUD that the bulk of the Federal Housing Projects in New Orleans are to be bulldozed to the ground this month. Many of those living in FEMA trailers do not have the resources to find other housing in the notoriously expensive New Orleans housing market. The Case Management system, which is designed to help citizens of the diaspora and those returned home deal with such challenges, is scheduled to end in March of 2008.
As a Christian, I am compelled to speak of the morality of these decisions. The issue is not simply one of housing or even subsidized housing. Rather, the issue before us is primarily a moral issue. The issue before us is not buildings, but people. As the Christ Child had no place but a manger to lay his head, so it is that many children in New Orleans and of the New Orleans diaspora have no place to call home. Shall America by policy treat our citizens as mere statistics or shall we respect the dignity of each person as a child of God? The numbers are huge, but as we were reminded by a thoughtful rabbi in the immediate aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center, each number represents a human being. It is not that tens of thousands shall be further displaced but that multitudes of human beings shall again be put out - one human being at a time.
The buildings are in disrepair, but they are well-built. They have good bones and could be repaired for much less money than rebuilding from scratch. The New Orleans Housing Authority was corrupt, and they mismanaged public housing in New Orleans for a good number of years. The feds, through HUD, took over management of the housing and didn't do much better in maintaining the buildings and keeping them safe for the residents who lived there. HANO is now back in charge.
Yesterday the bulldozing of the B. W. Cooper project was to begin, but protesters got in the way, and the operations were suspended. The New Orleans Times-Picayune has the story.
Dozens of protesters stalled plans by the Housing Authority of New Orleans to begin demolition of vacant buildings at the B.W. Cooper public housing development Wednesday, signaling the start of a contentious battle between what the government calls progress and dissenters view as an attack on the poor in post-Katrina New Orleans.
....
That fact meant nothing to the protesters, who managed to claim a victory, if only for one evening, as HANO and the city attorney's office agreed to halt demolition late Wednesday and possibly start fresh today.
....
Many residents of public housing reacted to the sight of the excavators with expressions of sadness and voiced distrust of the government's plans for "revitalization" of HANO's properties.
'It's home'
"It's not the lakefront, but it's home," said Ralph Lewis, 51, who was born and lived at Cooper until he evacuated before Katrina struck.
....
Tanya Davis, 44, said many of her missing neighbors are stuck in Texas or Georgia or Arkansas, waiting to come home.
....
Davis applied for her first "project," a one-bedroom apartment, more than a quarter-century ago, when she was a young mother. She got it.
"I started from there," she said. She's been working steadily ever since like most of her neighbors, she said. The ones who didn't work were disabled or senior citizens on a fixed income, people whom she and others helped by paying cab fare or fixing meals. "It was a tight-knit community. Everybody was close," she said.
The majority of the residents were working people, or they were elderly or disabled. The were not the deadbeats that we hear so much about. The powers have said that there is public housing that is now sitting vacant, but Bishop Jenkins addresses that point too.
Beware the claim that low cost housing is available and going unclaimed in New Orleans. There is more to this than empty apartments. The capacity of the growing homeless population in New Orleans and those of the Diaspora to qualify for these apartments, should they exist, is compromised. Without assistance, without case management, many do not have the ability to qualify for these apartments. So, if FEMA is putting people on the streets, many will decide that if they are going to be homeless, they would rather be homeless in New Orleans than in Houston or Atlanta. We face the potential of an extended situation not unlike that we saw in the Superdome immediately after Katrina.
Altogether, this statement from Bishop Jenkins is excellent. I admire greatly his advocacy on this issue. We need to hear from the leadership in the churches on matters of justice such as this. Thank you, Bishop Jenkins. Thank you, Ormonde, for calling attention to the bishop's statement.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Don't Blame Me, Blame Doug
Recently, while going through an airport during one of his many trips, President Bush encountered a man with long gray hair and beard, wearing a white robe and sandals, holding a staff.
President Bush went up to the man and said, "Has anyone told you that you look like Moses?" The man didn't answer. He just kept staring straight
The president said, "Moses!" in a loud voice. The man just stared ahead, never acknowledging the president.
The president pulled a Secret Service agent aside and, pointing to the robed man, asked him, "Am I crazy or does that man not look like Moses to you? The Secret Service agent looked at the man and agreed.
"Well," said the president, "Every time I say his name, he ignores me and stares straight ahead, refusing to speak. Watch!" Again the president yelled, "Moses!" and again the man ignored him.
The Secret Service agent went up to the man in the white robe and whispered, "You look just like Moses.Are you Moses?"
The man leaned over and whispered back, "Shhhh! Yes, I am Moses. The last time I talked to a bush, I spent 40 years wandering in the desert and ended up leading my people to the only spot in the entire Middle East with no oil."
Easy blogging. Good night.
President Bush went up to the man and said, "Has anyone told you that you look like Moses?" The man didn't answer. He just kept staring straight
The president said, "Moses!" in a loud voice. The man just stared ahead, never acknowledging the president.
The president pulled a Secret Service agent aside and, pointing to the robed man, asked him, "Am I crazy or does that man not look like Moses to you? The Secret Service agent looked at the man and agreed.
"Well," said the president, "Every time I say his name, he ignores me and stares straight ahead, refusing to speak. Watch!" Again the president yelled, "Moses!" and again the man ignored him.
The Secret Service agent went up to the man in the white robe and whispered, "You look just like Moses.Are you Moses?"
The man leaned over and whispered back, "Shhhh! Yes, I am Moses. The last time I talked to a bush, I spent 40 years wandering in the desert and ended up leading my people to the only spot in the entire Middle East with no oil."
Easy blogging. Good night.
Return To Me
Back to Advent, with the prophet Joel (2:12) speaking the word of the Lord:
"Yet even now," says the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;..."
Followed by Amos, from "The Daily Office", reminding us of the thread of darkness that runs through the readings for Advent:
Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
saying, ‘When will the new moon be over
so that we may sell grain;
and the sabbath,
so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,
and practice deceit with false balances,
buying the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
and selling the sweepings of the wheat.’
The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
Shall not the land tremble on this account,
and everyone mourn who lives in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?
Amos 8:4-8
And then from Matthew, in "The Daily Office", the call to repentance and righteousness, another great theme of the season, one that we so easily forget in our scramble to shop and decorate:
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, ‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, and to have people call them rabbi. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.
Matthew 23:1-12
Finally, an excerpt from the post by Vicki Black on "Food For the Soul" at the Episcopal Café:
Behold, you come. And your coming is neither past nor future, but the present, which has only to reach its fulfillment. Now it is still the one single hour of your Advent, at the end of which we too shall have found out that you have really come.
O God who is to come, grant me the grace to live now, in the hour of your Advent, in such a way that I may merit to live in you forever, in the blissful hour of your eternity.
From “The God Who Is to Come” by Karl Rahner, in Encounters with Silence, translated by James M. Demske (St. Augustine’s Press, 1999).
Ahhh! Those lovely words of Rahner's are, indeed, food for the soul.
"Yet even now," says the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;..."
Followed by Amos, from "The Daily Office", reminding us of the thread of darkness that runs through the readings for Advent:
Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
saying, ‘When will the new moon be over
so that we may sell grain;
and the sabbath,
so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,
and practice deceit with false balances,
buying the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
and selling the sweepings of the wheat.’
The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
Shall not the land tremble on this account,
and everyone mourn who lives in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?
Amos 8:4-8
And then from Matthew, in "The Daily Office", the call to repentance and righteousness, another great theme of the season, one that we so easily forget in our scramble to shop and decorate:
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, ‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, and to have people call them rabbi. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.
Matthew 23:1-12
Finally, an excerpt from the post by Vicki Black on "Food For the Soul" at the Episcopal Café:
Behold, you come. And your coming is neither past nor future, but the present, which has only to reach its fulfillment. Now it is still the one single hour of your Advent, at the end of which we too shall have found out that you have really come.
O God who is to come, grant me the grace to live now, in the hour of your Advent, in such a way that I may merit to live in you forever, in the blissful hour of your eternity.
From “The God Who Is to Come” by Karl Rahner, in Encounters with Silence, translated by James M. Demske (St. Augustine’s Press, 1999).
Ahhh! Those lovely words of Rahner's are, indeed, food for the soul.
Priestly Behavior?
From Elrena Evans at Episcopal Life:
Ten minutes before the service starts, a priest is pounding down the aisle in full stride. As my one-year-old daughter spots him, she squeals in recognition and holds out her hand. He whirls around to face her.
"Shhh!" he hisses. "Be quiet."
And with a swoosh of his robes, he is gone.
My daughter drops the hand she was holding out to him, confused. She doesn't understand why this man she was so happy to see wasn't happy to see her. And I don't understand why I am sitting here in the pew where I sit every Sunday with my extended family, allowing a man in clerical garb to rebuke my daughter.
Ten minutes before the service? I know that some churches reserve the time before the service as a quiet time, but this sort of rudeness to a child on the part of the priest is shocking.
I shift in my pew. I live in a world of the body. My spirituality is twined with flesh, with bodies that birth and nurse their young. That is the high calling of motherhood: a demand that we learn to negotiate the spirit world while remaining firmly rooted in our earthly humanity.
This isn't the image of the church I want to give my daughter, that we allow men in fancy dresses to tell us we're not welcome -- for being women, for being flesh, for being noisy, for being young. I contemplate walking out. But I don't want to leave. I want to stay right here, with my daughter, visible symbols of the messy realities of life. We who are steeped in the blood and milk of motherhood will not hide ourselves to make anyone else more comfortable. That's not the example Jesus set.
And then later in the Eucharistic service:
I kneel down at the Communion rail with her in my arms, and she holds her hand up to the chalice bearer, my father. He smiles as he tips the chalice to my lips. "The blood of Christ, the cup of salvation," he says. Then he rests his hand on my daughter's head. "The blessing of Jesus be upon you." She laughs, and snuggles into my arms.
Thanks be to God for the loving touch. Let's pray that, as she grows, the little child experiences more love than rudeness from the other members of the Body of Christ.
Thanks to Ann.
Ten minutes before the service starts, a priest is pounding down the aisle in full stride. As my one-year-old daughter spots him, she squeals in recognition and holds out her hand. He whirls around to face her.
"Shhh!" he hisses. "Be quiet."
And with a swoosh of his robes, he is gone.
My daughter drops the hand she was holding out to him, confused. She doesn't understand why this man she was so happy to see wasn't happy to see her. And I don't understand why I am sitting here in the pew where I sit every Sunday with my extended family, allowing a man in clerical garb to rebuke my daughter.
Ten minutes before the service? I know that some churches reserve the time before the service as a quiet time, but this sort of rudeness to a child on the part of the priest is shocking.
I shift in my pew. I live in a world of the body. My spirituality is twined with flesh, with bodies that birth and nurse their young. That is the high calling of motherhood: a demand that we learn to negotiate the spirit world while remaining firmly rooted in our earthly humanity.
This isn't the image of the church I want to give my daughter, that we allow men in fancy dresses to tell us we're not welcome -- for being women, for being flesh, for being noisy, for being young. I contemplate walking out. But I don't want to leave. I want to stay right here, with my daughter, visible symbols of the messy realities of life. We who are steeped in the blood and milk of motherhood will not hide ourselves to make anyone else more comfortable. That's not the example Jesus set.
And then later in the Eucharistic service:
I kneel down at the Communion rail with her in my arms, and she holds her hand up to the chalice bearer, my father. He smiles as he tips the chalice to my lips. "The blood of Christ, the cup of salvation," he says. Then he rests his hand on my daughter's head. "The blessing of Jesus be upon you." She laughs, and snuggles into my arms.
Thanks be to God for the loving touch. Let's pray that, as she grows, the little child experiences more love than rudeness from the other members of the Body of Christ.
Thanks to Ann.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
The Teenagers Ask The Archbishop
From Ruth Gledhill, at the Times Online in London, via Ann Fontaine at the Episcopal Café.
According to Gledhill, who doesn't always get things right, three teenagers from Oi! magazine conducted an interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Mylie Veitch, 18, asked him his views on a gay friend of hers who is considering adopting with his partner.
Dr Williams said: “This is a big one. I have questions as to whether same sex couples can provide the same stability as ‘normal parents’. I have no answers really, just questions.
“Many would argue that we need a balance of men and women to bring a child up. However, I have seen one fantastic example of same sex parenting first hand and I suppose stability is another key consideration.”
Asked about his support for gay clergy, he replied: “I have no problem with gay clergy who aren’t in relationships, although there are savage arguments about the issue you might have heard about. Our jobs mean we have to adhere to the Bible, gay clergy who don’t act upon their sexual preferences do, clergy in practicing homosexual relationships don’t. This major question doesn’t have a quick fix solution and I imagine will be debated for many years to come.”
Gledhill's final words are:
Many insiders believe that the dispute will move across the Atlantic to Britain next year.
Ruth, a number of us would say that the dispute has already jumped the pond.
The interview will be published on December 16.
UPDATE: A report on the interview from ICWales does not include the longish quote about gay clergy. We'll see. Thanks to Ann in the comments for the tip.
UPDATE 2: Here's a link to what appears to be the full article in a PDF file at Creative Solutions. Thanks to Anonymous in the comments.
UPDATE 3: From Anonymous in the comments:
Anonymous said...
no we did not record the interview and hes words were 'adhere' not 'try to live by' i dont know why it has been changed but a number of other things have been chnaged along the way by varous other sources that i am not too happy with and i shall be adressing.
FWIW. I have asked anonymous if she is one of the interviewers.
According to Gledhill, who doesn't always get things right, three teenagers from Oi! magazine conducted an interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Mylie Veitch, 18, asked him his views on a gay friend of hers who is considering adopting with his partner.
Dr Williams said: “This is a big one. I have questions as to whether same sex couples can provide the same stability as ‘normal parents’. I have no answers really, just questions.
“Many would argue that we need a balance of men and women to bring a child up. However, I have seen one fantastic example of same sex parenting first hand and I suppose stability is another key consideration.”
Asked about his support for gay clergy, he replied: “I have no problem with gay clergy who aren’t in relationships, although there are savage arguments about the issue you might have heard about. Our jobs mean we have to adhere to the Bible, gay clergy who don’t act upon their sexual preferences do, clergy in practicing homosexual relationships don’t. This major question doesn’t have a quick fix solution and I imagine will be debated for many years to come.”
Gledhill's final words are:
Many insiders believe that the dispute will move across the Atlantic to Britain next year.
Ruth, a number of us would say that the dispute has already jumped the pond.
The interview will be published on December 16.
UPDATE: A report on the interview from ICWales does not include the longish quote about gay clergy. We'll see. Thanks to Ann in the comments for the tip.
UPDATE 2: Here's a link to what appears to be the full article in a PDF file at Creative Solutions. Thanks to Anonymous in the comments.
UPDATE 3: From Anonymous in the comments:
Anonymous said...
no we did not record the interview and hes words were 'adhere' not 'try to live by' i dont know why it has been changed but a number of other things have been chnaged along the way by varous other sources that i am not too happy with and i shall be adressing.
FWIW. I have asked anonymous if she is one of the interviewers.
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