09 October 2006

Unforgivable Sins.


From S.M. Hutchens, of Touchstone magazine:

"The Institute on Religion and Public Policy News Service writer Daniel Blake reported on October 2 that Nick Howard, a son of the former Conservative Party leader Michael Howard, has been refused ordination in the Church of England. The transgressions which led to this end are typical of similarly placed men of orthodox conscience: he refused to take communion at his college’s weekly service, protested the notion that one could follow Christ in the context of a homosexual relation, and would not admit equal spiritual value to religions other than the Christian faith. In sum, he actively opposed the apostate religion that goes by the name of Christianity in the majority of theological colleges. For this he was branded as a troublemaker, and identified by his tutors as someone whose “unwillingness to listen” would make him unsuitable as a vicar.

I had a similar experience in the Episcopal Church, where I put myself forward as a candidate for the priesthood near the beginning of Frank Griswold’s episcopacy in the Diocese of Chicago. In those days the progressives’ most obvious pons asinorum was women’s ordination. Two of us in the weekend candidates’ retreat were quickly identified as opposing it. We were rejected, of course—a service the General Convention later provided for officially on behalf of the whole denomination. (Since 2002 no one who opposes women’s ordination may be legally ordained in the Episcopal Church.) Out we went with the other cranks, the ill-spoken, and the unlovely—those who at any time would have been judged as insufficiently reflective of Episcopalian society. General fruitiness seemed to be no bar, but excessive attention to the theology of the Prayer Book (John, my fellow conservative’s sin), was..."

Here's the whole thing - READ IT.
 

1 Comments:

Blogger David said...

whether you agree or disagree with howard's views on homosexuality, his stand for his faith and his principles is worthy of recognition.

09 October, 2006 09:39  

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