THE P RTAL
August 2016 Page 18
Is Marriage a Sacrament that can be changed by a vote ?
Fr John Hodgins offers an opinion on events in the Anglican Church in Canada
The notion that a Sacrament of the one , holy , catholic and apostolic Church of Christ could be changed fundamentally by a single vote of the representatives of a small denomination in Canada is beyond parody . Yet that is what the re-count of votes on a motion to allow “ same-sex marriage ” in the Anglican Church of Canada purports to have done .
Any pretence to being a branch of the Catholic Church ( professed in the creeds ) must surely be entirely gone and the triumph of liberal Protestantism complete in the Anglican Church of Canada .
Think of it . Two thirds of the two hundred Anglican laity , clergy and bishops gathered in Toronto , representing less than two per cent of a relatively small population in a northern country , arrogantly claims that by this vote the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony is for ever altered . This limited understanding of human life , history and the teaching of the Church through millennia is matched only by the staggering hubris of such a claim .
If it were not so sad , it would be humorous . Yet this monumental arrogance of the General Synod is thrust into the faces of the vast majority of Anglicans and other Christians around the world as being somehow “ progressive ”. To paraphrase C . S . Lewis and others : If you are progressing towards annihilation it may be time to consider another direction .
Annihilation is exactly what has been predicted by Reginald Bibby and other statisticians who say that by mid-century there will still be some property and some money but people will largely be absent from the Anglican Church of Canada . In short , with its ever-contemporary and , frankly , risible stances , the ACC has been in statistical meltdown since before the issue of changing the Marriage Canon completely overwhelmed its leadership .
The cult of political correctness has long dominated the hierarchy of North American mainline denominations . In contrast to exponential growth in Catholic and other churches around the world , numbers have fallen dramatically over the past fifty
years in the denominations that have adopted one PC cause after another . Ironically , in this latest Canadian lunge for the left , it was Aboriginal Canadian delegates to the General Synod who warned their nativespirituality-hugging liberal friends that same-sex marriage violated the will of the Creator . Political Correctness meets reality .
This latest arrogation of relativistic doctrinal dictatorship will leave the Anglican Church of Canada out of communion with most Anglicans ( and other Christians ) around the world and in a funk with ARCIC and other ecumenical dialogue partners . What is there to talk about when a tiny fraction of an increasingly antinomian denomination claims to have changed one of the central doctrines of the Christian Church ?
Compassion for all people regardless of their situation and even blessing of what have heretofore been considered irregular unions is one thing . Purporting to change a Sacrament of the Church is quite another .
Everyone needs to catch their breath and wait for the next pronouncement from General Synod . Baptism of animals comes to mind . No , this is not being contentious . There are those who seriously argue for the souls of animals and Anglican clergy in Toronto who have given Holy Communion to dogs .
Just 165 votes at General Synod will do it , or increase the number of persons in a marriage . Why only two ? Having expanded the marriage canon in this “ inclusive ” way on what principled grounds can one argue against the further inclusion of those who sincerely love two or more others ?
... continued at the foot of page 23 ‣