Sir, – Your Religious Affairs Correspondent, Patsy McGarry, is somewhat premature in announcing that what transpired in the Church of Ireland General Synod on Saturday was a display of “a great [Anglican] capacity to disagree agreeably” in relation to the motion reaffirming the church’s traditional teaching on marriage (Home News, May 14th).
True, the reported display of mutual affection among the bishops might be so interpreted, as was no doubt intended. One wonders if such demonstrations of mutual regard occurred when some of our fathers in God gave their fulsome support to the Ulster Covenant exactly 100 years ago in response to prejudice. In reality, the issue on Saturday was not marriage – which no one had questioned – but civil partnerships, which have nothing whatever to do with it.
For the bishops – with the exception of two – to claim that they had in mind “a firm and fervent desire of enabling members our church to engage with what are some of the more complex . . . aspects of contemporary life, understood from a sexual perspective” is manifest nonsense. All the fine words in the motion about “a willingness to increase our awareness of the complex issues regarding human sexuality” are negated by the unqualified pronouncement that “faithfulness within marriage is the only normative context for sexual intercourse”.
Selectively ransacking historic formularies is a funny way of addressing the said complex issues. Far from providing a platform for future open discussion, it locks the door and throws away the key. One may now choose any colour so long as it is black. What we have is not a basis for open discussion, but a vicarious condemnation of those whose sexual orientation is other than heterosexual.
What transpired in the synod was anything but an exercise in Anglican agreeableness. Rather it was a thinly disguised display of the opposite.
It is ironic that many of those who voted for this motion would also be quick to condemn the recent silencing of open discussion within the Catholic Church. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Sadly.
(Canon) ADRIAN EMPEY,
Thorncliffe Park,
Dublin 14.