APOSTASY!Bishops vote to approve resources for same-gender blessings[Episcopal News Service – Indianapolis] The House of Bishops on July 9 approved liturgical resources for blessing same gender relationships and diocesan commitments to the General Convention budget in two roll call votes.The day included some tense moments as well as a few lighter ones and more than an hour of conversation as bishops voted 111-41 with three abstentions for Resolution A049, authorizing the use of liturgical resources for blessing same-gender relationships. Shortly afterwards, bishops also voted 108-13 by roll call for Resolution B016, setting diocesan giving at 15 percent for the triennium. The measures now move to the House of Deputies for consideration.Bishop John Bauerschmidt of Tennessee requested the roll call vote before urging bishops to defeat the resolution. “It is reasonable to believe that vowed fidelity that is exclusive and lifelong to one other person is predicated on sexual difference,” he said. “This liturgy that is proposed does not have the basis in scripture, tradition or reason for us to authorize its use.”FULL STORY atEpiscopalians Set to be First Big US Church to Bless Gay Marriage
The U.S. Episcopal Church is poised to become the first major religious denomination in the United States to approve a rite for blessing gay marriages after its bishops overwhelmingly approved such a liturgy on Monday.The proposed blessing was agreed by the church's Chamber of Bishops at a meeting in Indianapolis and is expected to receive final approval from its House of Deputies later this week, Ruth Meyers, a chair of the Episcopalians' Subcommittee on Prayer Book, Liturgy and Church Music, told Reuters.The decision would go into effect in December and make the Episcopal Church, an independent U.S.-based institution affiliated with global Anglicanism, the biggest U.S. church to allow a liturgy for same-sex marriages.The Episcopal Church is the 14th-largest denomination in the United States with nearly 2 million adherents, according to the National Council of Churches.The United Church of Christ, a mainstream Protestant denomination with about a million members, has gone further so far than any other U.S. church, voting in 2005 to support same sex marriage.The new Episcopal same-sex liturgy, called "the Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant," would be a standard rite for same-sex marriage.
FULL STORY atEpiscopal bishops OK trial gay blessing prayer