In answer to questions, I offer the following as a further discussion starter:
Why THREE modern innovations, though different, belong together.
It should not really surprise us that three innovations in modern church life have occurred within the same time period and are interlocked and interweaved in various ways. These are the ordination of women to the presbyterate, the blessing of marriages involving a divorced person, and the blessing of partnerships of "gay" couples.
The causes of the introduction of these innovations into the "liberal" Churches in the latter part of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st are many and varied. Chief amongst them are the human rights movement of the 20th century moving into the church from secular society and the abandonment within the Church of the doctrine of Order.
By the human rights movement, energy and reasons have been supplied to women and to men who support them to press for the inclusion of women within the ordained Ministry of the Church. It has been argued that women are the equal of men, that the professions are now opened up to women, and that before God all people are equal and should be treated justly. From this standpoint the Bible has been re-interpreted so as to support this innovation.
Also, through the human rights movement, energy and reasons have been given to divorced persons and those who support them to press for the Church to change her received doctrine and discipline concerning those who may be married in church and receive God's blessing. It has been argued that divorced persons deserve a second chance at happiness in a blessed "relationship" and that the teaching of Jesus does not forbid such marriages.
Finally, because of their use of the human rights movement and its success in changing attitudes and practices in modern society, those who wish to establish the rights of "gay" and "lesbian" persons to live together in same-sex partnerships with the approval of the State and to be blessed by the Church therein have been very successful. This success has also been because they have successfully conveyed the message that some persons have an inbuilt orientation towards the same sex and that provision should be made for the exercise and practice of this in faithful partnerships.
It does not really matter for our purposes here just how each movement has used and benefited from the strong human rights movement of modern times. The fact is that they have done so and done so very successfully that anyone who questions their achievements runs the risk of being dubbed a bigot or homophobic or prejudiced.
However, it was not enough in the churches for the human rights movement to blow away the cobwebs and change the ethos and atmosphere. The Christian doctrine of sexual relations, inherited from the Old and New Testaments and enshrined in patristic teaching and ancient canon law, had to be abandoned - or more subtly had to be reworked and re-interpreted to make it speak with a new voice in support on the innovations.
The Christian doctrine is that of Order - the ordering according to a divine plan of the relations of male and female persons both in nature (creation) and in the new covenant established by the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. This Order is a pale but real reflection in human relations of the Ordered Eternal Relations that constitute the Three Persons of the LORD God, who is a Trinity in Unity and a Unity in Trinity, and who always exists as Three but in this order - first the Father, second the Only-Begotten Son and third the Holy Ghost who proceeds from the Father and the Son. While all the Three Persons are equal in Godhead and Majesty, they are different in Order, with the Father eternally the First.
Man (mankind/humankind) is made in the image of God and after his likeness. This includes his being created with and in Order. God created man, male and female created he them. Though man and women, male and female, are equal in worth and dignity and have a God-given, designed complementarity and are ordered towards each other for procreation and companionship, they are not equal in order, for it is the male first and the female second. This does not mean that the female is inferior to the male but that in the divine ordering she is second in order, even as the Son is subordinate - second in order - to the Father.
By this doctrine women are not called to be bishops/pastors because they are second in order and by this doctrine same-sex relations are contrary to nature and order. And by the doctrine of one flesh in the union of the male and female the remarriage of divorced persons is prohibited (as it was in canon law of the C of E until 2003).
In the modern Church, we have re-written the dogma of the Holy Trinity and departed from the doctrine of Order and thus we have allowed ourselves to be dominated in our thinking and decisions by the secular human rights movement (which though it has much importance in the modern world in certain spheres is not to be the basis of Church doctrine). There is no way of holding back innovations if we are basically dominated by human rights principles and we have little or no theological dogma.
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)
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