Church weddings for unchristened?

From the Sydney Morning Herald (Australia):

The Anglican Church is looking to woo brides and grooms back to their chapels by relaxing the requirement that at least one partner be christened in the church.

Couples are increasingly turning their backs on church weddings, with census data showing only 40 per cent of Australians now choosing to marry in a religious ceremony.

But Australia's second-largest Christian denomination is about to embark on a nationwide debate to determine whether it should solemnise marriages where neither partner is a member of the church.

If the changes are endorsed by church's 23 dioceses, it will be the biggest rewrite of church wedding policy in 25 years.

The Bishop of North Sydney, Glenn Davies, this week called on the church to let local ministers use their discretion and pastoral skills to determine which couples they should marry. "Marriage is not just for Christians, it is God's ordinance for all people," Dr Davies said. "We should rejoice in couples wanting a church wedding and not turn them away because neither party is baptised.

"The Australian church needs to engage with Australian society and we don't want to be rebuffing people who want to marry in a church but can't just because they can't tick the box on baptism. Marriage can point to Christ but let these couples take the journey at their own pace."

The question has divided church leaders, some of whom warn that any such decision could diminish the sanctity of the marriage ceremony and result in ministers being on call to solemnise Japanese tourist marriages and "quickie" weddings.

Opponents say couples who want to say "I do" in a church should be content with a blessing. . .

Divisions on the issue largely cut between evangelicals, who hold only to two sacraments given by Jesus Christ - baptism and Holy Communion - and Anglo-Catholics, who consider marriage holy orders and last rites to be integral ways of partaking in God's grace.

Dr Tim Harris, archdeacon from Adelaide, agreed that relaxing the requirements did not compromise the church's integrity. "Marriage is a gift from God for all humanity," he said. "People who marry outside the church are not any less married than those that are.

Andrew McGowan, warden and president of Melbourne's Trinity College, said it was important to distinguish between church sacraments and ritual and liturgical traditions.

Marriage had been understood to be a sacrament of the church since the 4th century and it was implicit in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, the authorised standard of worship and doctrine in the Anglican Church, that the parties to a marriage should be members of the church. "Although the church could offer marriage services for non-members they would have to be distinct from the existing sacramental rites to respect the integrity of the church and the participants."

Each diocese is now required to discuss the matter and report back to the next synod in 2010.

Read it all.

Meanwhile, at the Bega Cheese Heritage Centre....

From Australia via the Bible Belt Blogger:

It's a good thing the Anglican Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn has a crozier. He'll be needing it...

"THE Anglican Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn, Bishop George Browning, will perform the annual Blessing of the Herd at the Bega Cheese Heritage Centre at 9am on Sunday.

All members of the community are welcome to attend and give thanks for the agricultural bounty the Bega community receives each year from our rural industries," the Bega (Australia) District News reports. . .

Read it all.

Sydney Archbishop Jensen bans John Shelby Spong

From The Australian:

A ROW has erupted within the Anglican Church over a visit to Australia by an American cleric who has being accused of modernising Christ to the point of stripping him of all divinity.

Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen has taken the extraordinary step of banning John Shelby Spong, a fellow member of the Anglican communion who arrives in Sydney this morning, from churches in his diocese.

By contrast, Anglican Primate Phillip Aspinall has invited Bishop Spong, a leader of the church's liberal wing, to deliver two sermons in Brisbane's St John's Cathedral. . .

Dr Aspinall defended his decision to welcome the American bishop. "Bishop Spong speaking at St John's Cathedral is not particularly extraordinary," he said. "That Bishop Spong holds views which some Anglicans might find challenging is no reason to exclude him from speaking.

"Our church has thousands of members and widely diverse views on a wide variety of subjects. [Editorial comment: somehow, I don't think the questioning of the divinity of Jesus by a bishop should be a "diverse view"] I am sure Anglicans will listen respectfully to the bishop's views and make their own minds up."

One of the organisers of the visit, Brisbane priest Greg Jenks said Bishop Spong's critics were overreacting. "His new book is a good summation of how many people understand the place of Jesus," Dr Jenks said. "It is not dramatically new information. [Well, I'm sure that's true - nothing new here - same old same old] Bishop Spong has shown courageous leadership in our church of a kind we are in need of."

During a 2001 visit to Australia, Bishop Spong was banned by the then Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, Peter Hollingworth, from Brisbane diocesan churches. But during a 2003 visit, he was a house guest in Brisbane of Dr Hollingworth's successor -- Dr Aspinall. . .

Read it all, and many thanks to Sydney Archbishop Jensen for his steadfast leadership.

Sydney Bishops write to the Archbishop of Canterbury

Here's the letter the the Sydney Anglican bishops wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Excerpt:

Your invitation [to Lambeth] has been received with pleasure and it would give us a great deal of joy to be able to join you. Unfortunately the timing of the invitation has proved difficult. We have been looking for the response of the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church to the Primates’ Communiqué from Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. We understand that this response is due by 30th of September.

Read it all.
H/t to Stand Firm.