Adelphoi,
(in part answer to queries!)
A discussion starter.
It is claimed by some that the question as to whether or not the church should bless same-sex partnerships belongs to the sphere of morality (i.e., what is right and wrong) rather than to doctrine (i.e., church teaching). It is also claimed that the question as to whether the church ordains women as presbyters or not belongs to the sphere of discipline (i.e., what a national church is free under God to do for edification of the whole - see Article XXXIV of the Thirty Nine Articles) rather than to doctrine.
In other words there is no primary doctrinal question involved in either of these modern innovations that the ECUSA and other parts of the Anglican Communion are embracing.
I suggest that underlying both these questions as far as the Church is concerned there is a major doctrinal issue which contains both the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the doctrine of man.
Man is made in the image and after the likeness of God, and further man is made of two sexes, male and female. How male and female relate to each other in the church and how they are ordered one to the other in marriage is meant to reflect (in a dim human way, but a real way nevertheless) the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity (of the Father, together with his only-begotten Son and with his Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father through the Son).
Each of the Three Persons is equal to the Others in Godhead and Majesty; and likewise male and female persons are equal in worth and dignity. The Three Persons are in an eternal, dynamically fixed order of relation - first the Father, secondly the Son and thirdly, the Holy Ghost. This is the internal reality of God as God is unto himself and how God reveals his identity and relations to us. Likewise male and female are ordered in such a way that the male is first and the woman is second (and children third).
In practice reflecting God's plan this means that in the Church & Household of God men and women are equal before God as his children and they each have eternal worth; but, that there are ordered in such a manner that the male is first, which means that he alone (not all males but the one called) has the headship (thus is pastor of all). In human relations male and female are ordered towards each other in a divine complementarity of equality and in this relation, the male is first in order either in matrimony or in the congregation of Christ's flock. How this is worked out (discipline) will differ from place to place but the doctrinal basis is that of Order.
Because of this divine ordering, sexual relations between persons of the same sex, or between persons of opposite sexes outside of a God-given relation, are against divine Order and thus wrong in nature and in grace. Nevertheless, because of sin in the world and because of imperfections in human nature and persons, it may seem at times as though what is unnatural is acceptable and even commendable. In fact, disorder may be claimed as an aspect of order in a fallen world! The presence of aberrations from the norm, however, does not disturb the reality of divine ordering, although it does and should much affect the way the Church evangelises, teaches and exercises pastoral care.
So the doctrine of Divine Order is primary for God is the Creator, Redeemer, Judge and Lord of all. We are to reflect his order rather than seek to make him the author of our disorder. And we are to ensure that the Church's morality and discipline in all sexual relations is to flow from Order and be motivated by Love.
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)
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