Christian Church May Accept Gay Marriage (The United Church Of Christ)

[gilliam]

CLEVELAND. — The United Church of Christ, a denomination known for its progressive stand on social issues, will consider opposing resolutions on same-sex marriage at its biennial meeting in July, a church official said Friday.

“We take our democratic form of church governance seriously,” said the Rev. J. Bennett Guess, spokesman for the Cleveland-based UCC. “This will ensure some heated conversation for our church when we meet in Atlanta.”

This is the first time the same-sex marriage issue will be debated at the church’s General Synod meeting. The United Church of Christ has a membership of 1.3 million.

The General Synod considers resolutions, but it does not create policy for its nearly 6,000 congregations: UCC churches are autonomous. The UCC’s meeting, involving about 3,000 people, is set for July 1-5 in Atlanta. Guess said that if the delegates support a resolution approving same-sex marriage, it would be the first time a large Christian denomination has done so.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com …

 

[Gerry_Hunter]

Wolfhart Pannenberg, an Evangelican theologian, wrote the following in Christianity Today, Vol 40 No. 13, November 11 1996, Page 37:

“Here lies the boundary of a Christian church that knows itself to be bound by the authority of Scripture. Those who urge the church to change the norm of its teaching on this matter must know that they are promoting schism. If a church were to let itself be pushed to the point where it ceased to treat homosexual activity as a departure from the biblical norm, and recognized homosexual unions as a personal partnership of love equivalent to marriage, such a church would stand no longer on biblical ground but against the unequivocal witness of scripture. A church that took this step would cease to be the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.”

Well put, I’d say.

It is to be hoped that The Church will adjust its relationships with ecclesial communities that take this step, in a manner that makes it very clear that we are not about to overlook the action they took, nor ignore its consequences.

Blessings,

Gerry