Bishop: Church of Ireland can never accept gay relationships
by Jennifer Gold
Posted: Friday, August 8, 2008, 14:38 (BST)
Bishop Miller told News Letter, however, that such scientific revelations would not be sufficient grounds for altering the Church's position on homosexuality.
Proving that homosexuality is natural "makes no difference at all", he contested.
Bishop Miller is fresh back from the once-in-a-decade Lambeth Conference, which concluded on Sunday with the Anglican Communion intact but still deeply divided over the issue of homosexuality.
The bishop maintained that although the Communion had room for many different viewpoints, truth should still come before unity.
"We live in a wonderful Communion where you can disagree with each other. I don't think any of us knows at this point whether the Anglican Communion will ever be the same again," he said.
"It's worth holding together but it's not worth holding together at all costs - truth is more important than unity."
He stressed that opposition to homosexuality was not an attack on gay people.
"I don't think that there are any members of the Church of Ireland [that] are going out on some anti-gay drive or to harm gay people," he said.
Referring to assurances from Orthodox and Roman Catholic representatives at Lambeth that their Churches were facing the same issues, he said, "I think that the Anglican Communion is probably working through this issue on behalf of the whole Church and there are other Churches that know perfectly well that this is an issue but they have never been in a position to either admit it or mention it but are looking on to see how the Anglican Communion is going to resolve this," he said.
Bishops at Lambeth agreed to continue the process of drawing up of a covenant that will lay down structures of authority within the Communion, and establishing a Pastoral Forum to care for conservative parishes.
The Lambeth Conference "got better as it went on and where we ended up on the last day was maybe as good a point as we could have arrived at", Bishop Miller concluded.
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Added: Sunday, August 31, 2008, 6:05 (BST)
The Bishop can say what he wants. But in due time he will find that good hearted people, who understand the true meaning of Jesus Life, will come to understand the hypocrisy, and backwardness of the church. They have been guilty of many crimes, and will do and say anything to keep their lies intact, lest people begin to question all the other elements of their "faith".
And The bishop will find himself preaching only to the dust in the pews, and the dust of the departed, from the crumbling remains of his 15th century church.
As someone once said, "oh, what a tangled web we weave, when we practice to deceive".
And, as someone said once, "The arc of the moral universe is long, But it bends toward justice. That man died for his beliefs, at the hands of a maniac imbued with religious hatred toward Black people, who had decided they would no longer be, if not slaves in name, slaves in continuing fact through the institution of Segregation.
I'm talking of Dr. Martin Luther King. And this November it appears that America will finally have elected it's first Black President. Glory to God! What a distance our nation will have come.
ps - I am white, nominally Jewish, and married 40 years to a woman.
Steve
SteveMD2, Annapolis, MD, USA
Added: Friday, August 15, 2008, 10:48 (BST)
LGBT is like all other inclinations, lying, unforgiving, snobbishness, unbelieving, bad and hot temper, fornication, adultery, murder, jealousy and the list goes on... They all need to be reined in and that is why "All have sinned and have fallen short of God's glory"... and THAT"S THE TRUTH!!!
..and that's why we ALL need Jesus and His wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit from our loving Father.. and that's why He died on the cross.
Just know this and how serious this is because it is your eternal fate you are playing with.
Jesus said: " If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell."
..and we better take that advice seriously [I'm sure many won't], because this IS the Truth..
ong siong kai, Jakarta, Indonesia
Added: Friday, August 8, 2008, 18:13 (BST)
However it is not insignificant that the Irish will never be fully devoted to the Church which has been party to more of the miseries of their lives than any other institution. Ask any Irish citizen which threatens your liberty more, LGBT people or the church, and then you shall know the truth that sets Ireland free.
revtj, Atlanta GA USA
