tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043728.post2657731302405363259..comments2023-05-06T04:37:23.233-05:00Comments on The Prayer Book Society: News: Remarrying the Divorced in Church: “Light” from OrthodoxyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043728.post-82659782074872797662008-01-09T21:57:00.000-06:002008-01-09T21:57:00.000-06:00Perhaps a good place to begin to understand divorc...Perhaps a good place to begin to understand divorce is the brokenness of humanity. As a child growing up in a family marred by mental illness and dysfunction, I had no understanding of what a healthy marriage was. My greatest hope was that my father and step-mother would divorce. I prayed for it to happen. Not having experienced intimacy in my family, I jumped at the first opportunity for what appeared to me to be intimacy, entering into an ill-advised marriage. Is it surprising that in my first marriage I was ready to jump ship when things did not go well?<BR/><BR/>It is also not surprising that upon leaving my first marriage I was quick to want to escape the loneliness, failure, and self-hatred that I felt by quickly entering into another marriage. Does the fact that my divorce and remarriage occurred while I was in seminary add any more to my sin and shame? <BR/><BR/>My second marriage fell apart because I was the same wounded, hard-headed, and hard-hearted person that I was in my first marriage. I left the ministry because, though I had a desire to serve God and my neighbor, I was bound and held captive by my own sin.<BR/><BR/>Nearly twenty-five years later I became a priest. A priest who has been married three times. What a horror! No matter that I had experienced the healing presence of Jesus Christ in my life. No matter that, true to His word, He had set me free from my captivity to sin. What right did I have to be a priest?<BR/><BR/>None. Yet, I offered myself to my Bishop, withholding none of my past wickedness and brokenness. Yet, my Bishop accepted me, and I did what he asked in my faith community to discern my call. Yet, my community examined my faith and my life and chose to ordain me deacon and priest.<BR/><BR/>I humbly seek to serve Jesus Christ and His people each day. I have no righteousness of my own. Yet I am His, and I have His righteousness. One of the benefits of being broken is an awareness that the source of healing and strength is not to be found within. Jesus Christ is the source.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043728.post-22203544241235020112008-01-08T12:08:00.000-06:002008-01-08T12:08:00.000-06:00As a remarried Episcopalian, I think the form of s...As a remarried Episcopalian, I think the form of service is a reasonable one except for a few small choices of words: if only one party is remarrying, then the contrition and sin references seem applicable only to that party.<BR/><BR/>However, the ban on remarried clergy seems pretty infeasible (however desirable). Perhaps if you allowed the <A HREF="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=47&chapter=5&verse=32&version=9;" REL="nofollow">Matthew 5:32</A> loophole you could make it work while remaining biblically sound. The only risk is that it could lead to RCC-style annulments and associated phony processes to avail parties of the loophole (since civil courts no longer issue findings of fault).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com