Hebrews 4:14-5:6. We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God...not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.
It just occurred to me that Christ being without sin doesn't necessarily mean he was celebrate.  Original sin is disobedience to God.  Christ was obedient to death "Not my will be thine."

The motion (which passed) discussed in my blog of 22/04/2008, Blessing same-gender unions motion calls for the bishop to "authorize an appropriate rite and make regulations for its use in supportive parishes."  We Anglicans already have an appropriate rite for blessing civil unions. I recently discovered The Canadian Book of Occasional Offices; services for certain occasion not provided in the book of common prayer.  Published at the request of the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada and compiled by the Most Reverend Harold E. Sexton, Archbishop of British Columbia, in 1964. On page 109 there is “The Blessing of a Civil Marriage.”  While technically it is not for same-gender unions it is easier to modify an existing rite than to create a new one.

I have been asked what my opinion is on marriages where the husband and wife don’t intend to conceive children, or where one of the potential parents is infertile. I think the question of whether a couple doesn't want or can't have children is irrelevant to the question of a rite for same sex unions and to what Holy Matrimony is about. The BCP's main prayer (admittedly omitted where the woman is past child-bearing age) reads, " O MERCIFUL Lord, and heavenly Father by whose gracious blessing mankind is increased: Bestow, we beseech thee, on these thy servants the heritage and gift of children, and grant that they may also live together so long in godly love and honesty, that they may see their children christianly and virtuously brought up, to thy praise and honour; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen." The whole sacramental rite of Holy Matrimony is aimed at family - father, mother and children - mirroring the Holy Family in heaven. Holy matrimony is so much more than a loving couple living a life in service of God. The Epistle is Colossians 3.15 which talks of husbands loving their wives and children obeying their parents and fathers not provoking their children.

Quotations

· "Each individual's journey through life is unique. Some will make this journey alone, others in loving relationships - maybe in marriage or other forms of commitment. We need to ponder our own choices and try to understand the choices of others. Love has many shapes and colors and is not finite. It can not be measured or defined in terms of sexual orientation." From the Statement of Affirmation and Reconciliation by the Quaker meeting in Aotearoa.

· "Marriage is a union between one man and one woman, designed of God to last so long as they both shall live." From the Westminster Confession of Faith – approved by the General Assembly 1647

While I support my government’s decision to allow same-sex marriages through the civil process, I am not comfortable with fully equating it with an Anglican Church marriage. Civil marriages were initiated by man through the state while church marriages were instituted by God and therefore are sacred, holy and central to the community of the Church.

Marriage was adopted by Christians from Jewish practice. Jesus performed his first miracle at a wedding in Cana where he turned water into wine. He was blessing an existing practice, not initiating something new. This Cana marriage was truly sealed by God and was a sign of the love uniting Christ and his Church.

I have some misgivings about the motion which has been placed on the agenda for this year’s Diocese of Huron synod;

MOTION CONCERNING THE BLESSING

OF SAME GENDER MARRIAGES

Preamble:

The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada has affirmed the integrity and sanctity of same-gender unions, and has resolved that the blessing of same-gender unions is not in conflict with the core doctrine of the Anglican Church of Canada. With that in mind, we the people of the Diocese of Huron believe that we are being called to move forward in a caring and loving way to include the faithful gay and lesbian couples of our Church by blessing their loving and committed marriages.

Respecting the positions of those within our Church who cannot agree with the blessing of same-gender unions, for theological reasons and as a matter of conscience,

 

Moved: The Rev'd Greg Little Seconded by: Maureen Campbell

Be it resolved:

That this Synod request the Bishop grant permission to clergy, whose conscience permits, to bless the duly solemnized and registered civil marriages between same-gender couples, where at least one party is baptized; and that the Bishop authorize an appropriate rite and make regulations for its use in supportive parishes.

Not all of "we the people of the Diocese of Huron" believe we are being called to bless same-sex unions. If we were truly being called by God then the issue would not be tearing our church apart. A call is uniting, never divisive. It’s more likely we are being called to come up with a statement of affirmation and reconciliation with the world-wide Anglican Communion.

In the early undivided church, there was no appropriate rite initiated either by God or by man for blessing same-sex unions. The Anglican sacramental rite of Holy Matrimony is not appropriate. Holy Matrimony confers on the heterosexual couple the grace they need for attaining holiness in their married life. It consecrates them for the mission of building the Church family, which includes the responsible acceptance and upbringing of their children. The rite provides grace for accomplishing that mission. Same-sex civil unions, lacking the ability to conceive children, do not have the same mission as a heterosexual marriage. The Canadian civil marriage gives the same-sex marriage all the civil rights and privileges of a heterosexual marriage, but it does not give a mission.

I am not opposed to blessing such civil contracts as a same-sex marriage; but keep them in context and bless all personal contracts and friendships. I am opposed to establishing an "appropriate rite" for blessing same-sex marriages in isolation from the full Canadian Anglican Community. No Synod or Bishop on its own should initiate a new rite, especially if not based either in scripture or in the early church, in isolation from the whole Church.

I feel the motion needs to be amended by removing "authorize an appropriate rite and make regulations for its use in supportive parishes." You don’t need such a rite or regulations to bless a contract or friendship if that is all you are doing – blessing a loving relationship. The blessing should be a simple blessing, part of a regular service welcoming the new couple into the parish, that bestows nothing new and simply blesses a loving couple and their civil union. Don’t make it a back door to full Holy Matrimony status. Replace "

that the Bishop authorize an appropriate rite and make regulations for its use in supportive parishes" with "that the Bishop authorize an appropriate prayer or blessing and allow for its use in supportive parishes."

I support my government’s decision to allow same-sex “marriages” through the civil process but I chose to qualify such marriages by emphasizing the word “civil” – they are “civil marriages”.  (I wish my local MP, Karen Redman, had stuck to her well thought out compromise and not whipped senior Liberals to vote for the present Canadian definition of “marriage”.) The new definition is not the same as the traditional church definition.  The Church marriage down through the ages unites a man and a woman as husband and wife for the purpose of the formation of a family unit, procreation and the education and nurturing of children.

I believe that same-sex marriages are not compatible with Anglican Church marriages. I am extremely worried that the issue of blessing same-sex unions may split the Anglican Church in Canada and get us thrown out, along with the U.S. Episcopalians, of the world-wide Anglican Communion.  I really don’t understand the Dioceses of New Westminster, Ottawa and Montreal voting to allow the blessing of such unions.  Same-sex marriages are contracts or civil unions.  They differ from a bond of life long friendship between two same sex persons in that there is a sexual element and the contract seeks to legitimize the sexual relationship. Friends also make a lifelong commitment though there is no exclusiveness. The Church does not bless friendship or general contracts so why should it bless same-sex marriages?  If you are going to bless same-sex marriages then make it different from the traditional church marriage and include all committed friendships. Friendship is indeed blessed!

10. Who is this Word that spoke by the prophets and became incarnate in the man Jesus Christ? The Word is an eternal idea like the personification of wisdom in the Old Testament. As the active agent of God, the Word has eternity. Proverbs and Ecclesiastes describe Wisdom as the power of God and the agent of creation. The Word referred to in both John and Hebrews as pre-existent with God, is the wisdom of God that is reflected in the reason and moral sense of  upright  men and in the order and beauty of creation. A Qumran text describes it thus:

"By his knowledge all has come into being and by his thought

he directs everything without him nothing is done."

The use of the term "Word" in the New Testament also comes from Philo of Alexandria, a contemporary of Jesus. Philo set out to synthesize the Jewish concept of WISDOM with the Greek concept of LOGOS. Philo defines the Word as the image of God's mind in creation, in the law and in man's reason. Thus we get in the Letter to the Hebrews, Christ "reflects the glory of God ... upholding the universes by his word of power" and in the Gospel of John, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God ... all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made."

In John 14:10, it seems almost that Christ himself is using the term "Word" in this sense

when he says,

"The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself; but

the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works."

Paul also subscribes to the concept of the Word dwelling in Christ; in Colossians 2:9 he writes:

"For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and

you have come to fullness of life in him, who is the head of

all rule and authority."

and in Paul's quote of an early Hymn in Philippians 2:6-11:]

"Who though he was in the form of God did not count it robbery

to be equal with God but emptied himself taking the form of a

servant, coming into existence in the likeness of men; and

being found in human form he humbled himself and became

obedient to the point of death (even death on a cross).

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the

name which is above every name, that at Jesus' name every knee

should bow in heaven and earth and under the earth — and

every tongue confess 'Jesus Christ' to the glory of God the

Father."

11. It is difficult to distinguish between the Word in Christ and the Holy Ghost. Like the Word, the Holy Ghost is described as the concentrated and focalized power of God. The Nicene Creed emphasizes that the Holy Ghost is the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father... and who has spoken though the prophets. In the Gospels, the Holy Spirit was viewed not as a personal figure but rather as a power and appeared graphically only in the form of the dove descending on Christ. The Holy Ghost is portrayed as not subject to the will of the prophet or even the anointed one; it seems to have a will of its own, to be free. Revelation of the Holy Spirit in the prophetic word or in the word of knowledge becomes Holy Scripture, which as divinely breathed cannot be broken. I am not sure there is a difference between the Word and the Holy Ghost. Christ has the Holy Ghost descend and remain with him during his mission and Christ is the Word incarnate. The Holy Ghost that spake by the prophets speaks most perfectly in Christ. Christ talks both of sending a comforter and of being always with us. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit to all who believe takes place only after the ascension of Christ. It is the beginning of a new time of salvation, in which the Holy Spirit (Christ as the Word) is sent as the Paraclete to the church remaining behind in the world.

12. In Hebrews 3: 1 readers are reminded to consider Jesus, who is both apostle and high priest. As apostle he represents, not his own interests but those of the one who sent him. Here the divine initiative in salvation is stressed; we can do nothing to effect our own salvation. God must offer grace. As high priest he mediates between God and man, bring God's will to men and interceding for men in the divine presence. Hebrews 3:2 shows how Jesus perfectly carried out his mission as Messiah: "He was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in God's house.

Hebrews 5:1 goes on to explain Christ's role as a high priest:

"For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to

act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and

sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and

wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of

this he is bound to offer sacrifice for his own sins as well

as for those of the people. And one does not take the honour

upon himself, but he is called by God, just as Aaron was. So

also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest,

but was appointed by him who said to him, "Thou art my Son,

today I have begotten thee" as he says also in another place

"Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek."

 

                Note that in the above passage it is emphasized that Christ is appointed and that the begetting of Christ, as Son, occurs when the Holy Ghost descends on him and remains with him at his baptism by John.

                 Christ is the fulfilment of the Old Testament faith which saw a triumph of God over all present sources of frustration. God's Kingdom would be established by an anointed one (Messiah) of the line of David, King of Israel in the tenth century B.C. Christ brings the newKingdom by defeating death and at the same moment (the symbolism of the temple curtain ripping after his death) doing away with the need for an earthly temple and high priest. As Hebrews 8:1 states, "Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of Majesty in heaven, a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent, which is set up not by men but by the Lord." Christ is Messiah, Son of God, the prophet, the high priest and the Paraclete. He lives and is with us, that is the whole point of Easter. There is no need for a Pope or High Priest: Christ lives and is always with us, the only mediator necessary.

 
13. The point of Easter is that God whom Jesus called his Father raised him to the fullness of life. As violently as death had been imposed upon him, he had embraced it out of fidelity to his mission and love for humanity whom he called his brothers and sisters. By raising him from the dead. God made him Lord and Christ, the source of forgiveness and renewal for all who believe in him. However the Holy Ghost can speak through the consciousness of anyone even if they neither know nor believe in Christ. All who seek God, though they know not Christ, can be moved by grace, can do His will, and can achieve eternal salvation through Christ because Christ died for ALL mankind! The 'good news' of Easter was, is and always shall be that the same, fully human Jesus who was crucified, dead, and buried, was the seen alive in a radically transformed spiritual body by the Apostles and other believers. His visit radically transformed them into true fisher of men! Jesus' achievement was important because his obedient fidelity to his vocation   gave moral and redemptive value to his self sacrifice, the crucifixion thus is the supreme redemptive act and also the means of expiation for the sins of man. Original sin is essentially the assertion of self in its separation from God. The nature of sin is self-centredness, the putting of self in the centre where God alone should be. We are all born doing this; that is original sin. Most of us continue to put ourselves first all our lives; that is why the general confession must stay in the Anglican communion service. We continually need to be reminded that we are all sinners. Sin as  the misuse of our freedom has led man into total opposition against God, who in return delivers him over to death.

"But God shows his love for us in that, while we were yet

sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

"Through him you have confidence in God, who raised him from

the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in

God." 1 Peter 1:21

14. God is understood by most Christian to be one God but three persons. God is seen:

a. as Creator, Lord of the history of salvation. Father, and

Judge, who revealed himself in the Old Testament;

b. as the Lord who, in Jesus Christ lived among men and was

and is present in their midst as the risen Christ;

c. as the Holy Spirit, who is experienced in prayer as that

inner voice praying and also comforting them.

 

                I find this doctrine of the Trinity difficulty to understand. In the New Testament, it is hard to see the Word incarnate in Christ and the Holy Ghost as two separate persons. The word "person" designates an individual being, a separate, stand alone being. The Bible emphasizes that man is created in the image of God. We should be able to understand the concept of the Trinity from some parallel in us. In man, there is the body, the mind and the soul but only one man not three men. God is the ONE and there are the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost as parts of the ONE. I don't think I am far wrong in this interpretation of the Trinity. Irenaeus, an early church father, seems to be saying something similar when he called the Word and the Holy Spirit the two hands of the Father. This interpretation certainly answers the Question of the three being equal: all three are subordinate to the whole.

 

15. On the night before he died, the New Testament tells us, Jesus took part in a Passover meal with his apostles. On that occasion he took bread and, when he had given thanks, he brake it; and gave it to he disciples, saying, "Take, eat; this is my Body, which is given up for you: Do this in  remembrance of me." Likewise after supper he took the Cup; and, when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, "Drink ye all, of this; for this is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins." And then he said, "Do this, as oft as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me."

                This command is the key to our worship; we are to break bread and drink wine as often as two or three are gathered together in his name. In insisting on a Mass being celebrated at every service, the High Anglicans, together with other traditional Catholic churches, are no doubt correct. However, I do not believe in a repeated sacrifice or that the bread and the wine actually change into the body and blood of Christ. The natural body and blood of our Saviour Christ, they are in heaven and not here. The Mass is a sign given by our Lord with the gift that is given through the sacrament. It is both a pious rite carried out by Christians in memory of Christ and an act of the living Christ reaffirming his mediation (as our high priest) between God and men.

                The Holy Ghost, during the Mass, forms in us that intimacy with the Father which is the all-determining reality of Jesus' life and death: his real presence in the bread and the wine. Like the majority of Anglicans, I believe there are only two sacraments: the Eucharist and Holy Baptism. I believe that the Word became incarnate in the man Jesus when it descended on him and remained with him at his baptism in the Jordan. Holy Baptism is a particularly significant sign, a sign of God becoming Emmanuel, present for all as He was for Christ. It also symbolizes the coming of the Holy Ghost promised by Christ.

16. The early Christians maintained that the unity of the early church, which exhibited a vast array of institutional, theological and worship forms, consisted not of an external constitutional dogmatic and liturgical uniformity but of a "unity of the Spirit" maintained, "in the bond of peace... just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all" (Ephesians 4:2-6). The Lund Principle of the World Council of Churches states this idea in modem terms:  "The churches should do all things that are possible to be done together and only do separately those things which for conscience sake they must do separately."

                I do not believe that we Anglicans, or even we Christians, have an exclusive redemption: Christ died for all and God is present in all world religions. The many varieties of religions in the world are simply pictures of God, taken from different angles. These different religions are provided by Him so that all people are saved by believing in Him and living a life of service to their neighbour according to their conscience. The unifying principle is God himself. Religion is not primarily about holy places, holy rites and vestments, holy days or holy clerical castes, it is about people, about justice, about the healing of a torn, tortured, needy world. It is about the  naked, the hungry, the downtrodden, the weak, the wandering homeless. While God speaks and acts in other religious cultures, it is only to Christians that he is manifest as Father, Son, Spirit. This means that to Christians is given the joy and the responsibility of recognition and proclamation of the Triune God, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer, but this does not mean that other revelations are any less true to the Creator.

                I am an Anglican. My church's stand is summed up as follows: "Show us that there is anything clearly set forth in Holy Scripture that we do not teach and we will teach it. Show us that anything in our teaching or practise is clearly contrary to Holy Scripture, and we will abandon it." The Anglican Way is summed up thus:

"Our system is simple and intelligible. We expect every

one to be able to understand it, and to make use of it

all. The individual is not supposed to make selections

from it as he pleases and to discard the rest. Yet it

leaves him sufficient moral and intellectual freedom to

be fully educative... Of course, any one who is entrusted

with freedom will make some mistakes. The Church can

afford to take that risk, because it knows that no

mistake or failure is beyond repair. Naturally everyone

to whom the exercise of Private Judgement is abhorrent

will not find himself at home in such a system as this.

But it may be worthwhile to point out that to decide to

forego all private judgement is in itself an exercise of

private judgement on the most comprehensive scale

imaginable and with very far-reaching results." -R.H.

Maiden, The Anglican Communion, p 19.

17. Why do we not keep the Jewish sabbath? The old Sabbath marked the close of the first stage of divine activity. Creation; the new Lord's Day marks the beginning of the second stage, Regeneration. The Sabbath ended the week with the Nunc Dimittis of resignation; the Lord's  day begins the week with a Te Deum of renewal. The Council of Laodicea forbade Christians to abstain from work on the Jewish sabbath, calling this practise 'Judaizing'.

                Justin Martyr, writing in the 2nd century, wrote: "But Sunday is the day on which we all hold a common assembly, because it is the first day of the week on which God ... made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead."

                Also from a 2nd century Church father: "Wherefore also, we keep the eighth day withjoyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose from the dead."

 

18. It is easier to worship Jesus as the message rather than to follow the message he came to preach. Jesus said, "Not everyone that saith unto me. Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven." There is a new richness of content in Jesus' concept of God. Fatherly attributes come to the fore in his teaching. God is one who loves, cares, gives, listens, welcomes, seeks, accepts, forgives, provides. However, Jesus' teaching regarding God as Father was not new; what is new is his individual unique feeling of sonship. Both the Old Testament and the contemporary Jewish theology emphasized God's role as father, his protective and nurturing care of his family, the discipline which he imposes on his children, the love and affection which he displays, and the intimate relationship which they (the Jews) enjoy with God. Christ expanded on this by calling God by the familiar 'Abba' -- what a young Jewish child called his father.

                Christ said, "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them." Christ taught that man has nothing from himself but owes everything, even his being, exclusively to the will of his divine Creator. He is joined with all  their fellow creatures through a relationship of brotherly solidarity. We are given dominion over the Earth, not to rape it but to husband it, to nurture it, to be in "brotherly solidarity" with all creation. Christ's sermon about the lilies of the field is a message not to worry about the future but  to be at peace with creation, to be in harmony with nature. Christ taught that God is in every man; he states: "As you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me," and "If you have seen your brother, you have seen your Lord."

                Christ taught that every individual can have an unmediated relationship without priest or minister, without rite or ritual, to God, "as God is present in the midst of his gathered people."  We are instructed to shine forth in the world, not to withdraw from the world or to become celibate. The most important single thing that any person can ever do in this world is to marry the right person by the right authority in the right place - a harmonious family life is a gift of God. But, we are also to follow Christ's example and teach the Kingdom of God by living his life. God is good, and He expects all to be good, in the plainest and most unvarnished sense of the term — "to do justice and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God."

We need not bid, for cloistered cell,

Our neighbour and our work farewell,

Nor strive to wind ourselves too high

For sinful man beneath the sky;

The daily round, the common task

Will furnish all we need to ask—

Room to deny ourselves, a road

To lead us daily nearer God.