Vetting Elites: Anglican Bishops in Church of Ireland

Vetting Theological Elites, e.g Bishops

          Reformation Anglicanism has been attempting to follow the  Anglican Church of Ireland and their issues with homoerotic unions, legalized sodomy and, in general, sexual sins.  This can be subsumed under the current Confessional discussions at Reformation Anglicanism about the 9^th commandment, truth, integrity, Biblical fidelity, Confessional integrity, decency and courage.

           Never has so much noise been made by so few with so little Biblical support with such effect resulting in such wide caterwauling!  These Bishops, themselves, are good arguments against episcopacy!

          This is a 5- to 10-minute problem with some leadership, courage and integrity.  The time has come for serious "vetting" and where, as necessary, rebuttal of these episcopal elites. Time for theological Marines to congregate. 

http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/local/coi-bishops-split-on-marriage-vote-1-3838456

CoI bishops split on marriage vote

Revd Alan Harper, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland addresses the General Synod in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.

Published on Monday 14 May 2012 08:38

TWO Church of Ireland bishops have taken the highly unusual step of publicly voting against a motion brought by other bishops which re-stated the church’s traditional teaching on marriage.

The liberal bishops of Cork and Cashel and Ossory opposed a General Synod motion which attempted to clarify the church’s teaching on same-sex relationships by stating that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

In a public display of the disagreements within the Church of Ireland’s leadership on the issue of homosexuality, Bishops Michael Burrows and Paul Colton voted against the motion at the church’s general synod in Dublin, while the 10 other bishops supported it.

Saturday’s debate was the first time that the church had openly debated homosexuality since the News Letter revealed last September that the first serving Church of Ireland cleric had entered a civil partnership.

Yesterday a liberal Dublin minister blamed conservatives from Northern Ireland for having “suddenly appeared” on Saturday to vote through the motion.

But the leading evangelical bishop, Harold Miller – who seconded Saturday’s motion – dismissed that and said: “Anyone who wanted to be there could be there.”

The motion — who said that “faithfulness within marriage is the only normative context for sexual intercourse” — was only discussed on Saturday after tense behind-the-scenes meetings following Archbishop Alan Harper’s refusal to allow it to be discussed because of a point of order on Thursday.

Saturday’s vote came after an attempt to remove the Press was rejected. The synod voted for the motion by 245 votes to 115. Clergy voted by 81 to 53 and laity by 154 to 60.

A series of amendments to the motion were defeated before the final vote.

The motion — which was implicitly a rejection of civil partnerships or gay marriage — has been welcomed by evangelicals, who see it as a restatement of the church’s orthodox teaching.

But liberals are largely unhappy and have claimed that it could lead to a “witch hunt” against gay clergy.

It is not yet clear whether the motion will be used by conservatives in an attempt to have Dean Gordon and his bishop, Michael Burrows, disciplined over the dean’s civil partnership.

However, rumours that an attempt may have been made at the synod to bring Bishop Burrows — who was openly jeered by a large section of the audience on Thursday when he spoke against the marriage motion — proved unfounded.

Archbishop of Dublin Michael Jackson presented the motion as “the next stage of engagement with one another around these issues” and stressed that the word “normative” was “used theologically” in the motion. He insisted that it was not used “in any such way as to make anyone abnormal”.

Archbishop Jackson told the synod that “for many, this has become the defining issue of international Anglicanism”.

The Bishop of Down and Dromore, Harold Miller, said that “although proposed by the Archbishop of Dublin and seconded by myself, the essential contents of this motion have emerged from the corporate thinking of the bishops”.

He added: “The bishops have taken very seriously their role in maintaining and furthering the unity of the church at a time when that has been threatened in the wider Anglican Communion. So the contents of this motion were not arrived at lightly.”

Both bishops’ speeches were met with loud applause.

As well as re-affirming the church’s teaching on marriage, the motion also gave authority to the church’s powerful Standing Committee to further discuss the issue of homosexuality and bring recommendations to next year’s synod.

And the motion supported a “continuing commitment to love our neighbour, and opposition to all unbiblical and uncharitable actions and attitudes in respect of human sexuality from whatever perspective, including bigotry, hurtful words or actions, and demeaning or damaging language.”