The Church of England on Friday (Jan. 4)
confirmed that it has dropped its prohibition on
gay clergy in civil partnerships becoming bishops
— but only if they agree to remain celibate.
Speaking on behalf of the Church’s House of
Bishops, Bishop of Norwich Graham Jones said in
a statement: “The House of Bishops has
confirmed that clergy in civil partnerships, and
living in accordance with the teaching of the
Church on human sexuality, can be considered
as candidates for the episcopate. There had been
a moratorium on such candidates for the past
year and a half while the working party
completed its task.”
Jones added that the bishops agreed it would be
“unjust” to exclude gay men from becoming
bishops if they were otherwise “seeking to live
fully in conformity with the Church’s teaching on
sexual ethics or other areas of personal life and
discipline.”
Although the bishops approved the change on
Dec. 20, it wasn’t noticed until Friday when the
BBC’s religious affairs correspondent, Robert
Pigott, read it in a report published in the Church
Times.
The move represents a major shift for the
mother church of the worldwide Anglican
Communion, which had already weathered a
major schism when Anglicanism’s American
branch, the Episcopal Church, consecrated
openly gay Bishop V. Gene Robinson in New
Hampshire in 2003.
Evangelical Anglicans said that they would fight
the move to let gay clergy become bishops.
Rod Thomas, chairman of the conservative group
Reform, told the BBC that the idea of appointing
people in civil partnerships as bishops had not
been agreed on or debated by the wider church.
That would be a major change in church doctrine
and therefore not something that can be slipped
out in the news,” he said. “It is something that
has got to be considered by the General Synod.”
The governing General Synod has already proven
itself reluctant to make major changes to who
can become a bishop; delegates narrowly
defeated a proposal last November to allow
women bishops, a decision that sparked
widespread anger from the public and British
government.
The issue of gay bishops has split the Church of
England since 2003 amid a row over gay cleric
Jeffrey John becoming the Bishop of Reading,
about 58 miles west of London.
Presently, John is dean of St. Albans Cathedral in
Hertfordshire and is registered in a same-sex
civil partnership with his longtime partner. Under
the new rules, he would be eligible to become a
bishop as long as he maintains his commitment
to celibacy.

Sign of end time.

[color=soyouquotedme]Church of England is doomed. [/color]

Church of England abi i hope church of Nigeria will soon follow? Shameless hypocrites God dey shaa.

Smh

Disheartening.

They are no longer fit to be called a "christian church". They should be ashamed of themselves!

The 'church of england' is a disgrace to human concience and morality. No wonder young pple are no longer going to church in england. No wonder prayer is no longer offered in the perliament before proceedings.

May God giv the few who are still standing for the truth d strength to carry on. I wont forget the question Jesus asked his disciples, 'will i find faith when i return?'. Even some atheist are being ordained bishops. God hav mercy.

Just wondering . . . . . . , how do you square celibacy with civil partnership ?

What is Church of England?

What does celibacy have do with the Anglican Church?. Is that the next thing they want to copy from the Roman Catholic Church. I thought that when you find out you are doing the wrong thing, the best thing to do is to abandon it and go for the right one, but these people will remain in the Anglican Church and try to copy as many as they can from the Catholic Church. The main problem of the Anglicans started with their founder "King Henry VII" who wanted to divorse Queen Cathrine of Aragon to marry his mistress Anna Boiyle (the queen's maid). When his request was not granted by the Pope (because Christ condemed it), he broke out from the Church, though not intending to found a new Church, which is exactly what he ended up doing. Now with this bad example from the king, it was just a matter of time, divorse became legal. As if that is not enough England whose monarch is the head of the Anglican Church, became the first to legalise Abortion and the use of Contraception. Now with Contraception alone you have opened the door for a whole range of possibilities. Now if you say that it is right for one to have s.ex while closing all door to procreation, then one can engage in all forms of s.ex that does not lead to procreation. This inclueds homosexuality and beastality, This is the arguement of the gay activists and with that they got the legalization they wanted for gay marriage. The second possibility ie beastality hasn't been legalised simply there is no activists litigating for it and I tell you any day they appear they will still win. This may happen in our life time, it is just a matter of time.

@ Poster

David Wilkerson's prophecy documented in his book " the vision" coming to pass....