Same-sex marriage ruled out by Anglican Church in Southern Africa 22 Feb 2016 Author: George Conger Gay marriage would be a fundamental change to church doctrine and cannot be permitted, a statement released by the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, has held. In a statement released after their 13-18 February 2016 meeting at a hotel outside of East London in the Diocese of Grahamstown, the bishops said they “discussed and worked over their draft Pastoral Guidelines in response to Civil Unions within the wider contexts of Marriage and Human Sexuality in readiness for decision at Provincial Synod.” The bishops offered their assurance that all baptised Christians “regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the Body of Christ.” At their February 2015 meeting the bishops could not come to an agreement on the doctrinal issues around gay marriage, but agreed to hold together. At last week’s meeting however, the bishops agreed they would would not be changing their “current policy, which is that the Province 'cannot advise the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions' (Resolution 1:10 of the Lambeth Conference of 1998).” The bishop’s statement noted “The Prayer Book affirms 'that marriage by divine institution is a lifelong and exclusive union partnership between one man and one woman'; therefore the draft guidelines affirm for now that 'partnership between two persons of the same sex cannot be regarded as a marriage... accordingly our clergy are not permitted to bless such unions... nor are they permitted to enter into such unions while they remain in licensed ministry'.” The guidelines will be submitted for approval to the church’s general synod later this year. Click here for the rest of the article: www.anglican.ink/article/same-sex-marriage-ruled-out-anglican-church-southern-africa
The local media capitalized on the statement that, "all babptized Christians are full members, regardless of sexual orientation"? by publishing headliness that read, " Anglican Church says yes to homosexuals". This whole thing is quite twisted by the media, creating an impression that there was a time when gay people were not allowed in church.