Toronto to get same-sex blessings

Rationale for this post as below.

Apparently the College of Bishops in the diocese is trying to circumvent a vote on same-sex blessings that would likely to lead to our becoming the seventh synod to approve them. The pastoral plan is as follows:

* "Episcopal permission be given to a limited number of parishes, based on Episcopal discernment, to offer prayers and blessing (but not the nuptial blessing) to same-sex couples in stable, long-term, committed relationships, as an extension of the current pastoral norms.
* Episcopal guidelines on the nature of the prayers/blessing will be established. A particular rite will not be authorized.
* Episcopal permission for blessings will be required.
* Evaluation of this pastoral response will be undertaken after one year.
* No parish or clergy will be required to participate.
* A Bishop’s Commission will be formed to create the guidelines, monitor activity and review. "

A couple of points:

"Bishop Johnson said the bishops believe the issue of same-sex blessings requires a pastoral response rather than a legislative decision such as a vote at synod."

I'll bet they do.

"He said that 'We are committed to remaining in alignment with the decisions and recommendations of General Synod and Lambeth,' and that 'At the same time, we are trying to act in accordance with the House of Bishops’ statement to develop the most generous pastoral response to our local situation. Given that, we think that a pastoral response and not a legislative one is the correct way to move forward.'"

So the introduction of SSBs by episcopal fiat complies with the "moratorium" but synodical legislation of them wouldn't? Sounds a bit like Tract 90 reasoning to me. Why not just call the fairly feeble moratorium for what it is?

Bishop Ferris leaves Canadian church

From the Anglican Journal.

I prefer to focus on liturgical porn over the politics of sexuality here, but since Canadian Anglican bloggers are so thin on the ground occasionally I feel obligated to note a story, lest it go unmentioned.

What chagrins me most about this story is that Archbishop Venables is still involved with the Anglican Network in Canada. I had been under the impression that the SoCo arrangement was a temporary, pastoral emergency, and that the point of the creation of the Anglican Church in North America was to provide the breakaway groups with self-sufficiency and unity under a domestic primate. That ++Venables is still providing oversight to congregations in Canadian soil is, to my mind, a far more serious breach of catholic order than the blessing of same-sex marriages. And I take it that Bishop Ferris intends to exercise episcopal ministry in this Dominion rather than relocating to Buenos Aires.

Christmas Eve at Christminster

First Mass of Christmas celebrated at Christ the Saviour Monastery in Hamilton on 6 January 2008. Sung by the schola of the Gregorian Institute of Canada. I was planning to attend, but ending up getting scheduled to work (even though I'm not available Tuesdays). Since I get a good deal of religious accomodation, I didn't fight it.

The Screwed Up Life of Charlie the Second

Well, I did finish the novel before I went to sleep on Tuesday. (I'm now working on the latest Bishop Blackie Ryan mystery). I have to recommend it strongly. By turns touching, funny, and titillating, The Screwed Up Life of Charlie the Second was the best $20 I ever spent. The protagonist reminds me of me in high school.

Charlie is an openly gay Lutheran high school senior in Illinois. The novel, written in the form of a diary, traces the development of his first relationship, and the concurrent dramas in both boys' families.

The novel was perfect for someone like me because it combined the relaxed tone and language of a young-adult novel with enough material to keep full-blown adults happy (the cultural references Charlie casually drops would never be made by anyone else that age but me and the sex is rather explicit). What I thought particularly brilliant was the way in which the sexual orientation of the (anti-)hero and his boyfriend was handled. This is not a coming-out story: that watershed has already happened before the narrative begins and has ceased to be an issue. As someone who went to high school in affluent, liberal, mainly white suburb at the turn of this century, I found this a remarkably accurate reflection of my (pretty uneventful) experience as a gay adolescent.

It's really a charming novel and I can't recommend it enough, though I won't dissemble that one review I read called it "pretty much erotica with plot, and I do mean that in the best way possible..."

Seeing Doubt

This evening I went to see Doubt with a friend. I have to recommend it; I nearly cried at the climactic closing scene. Here is a fascinating - and plausible - analysis of what may have happened in the film's subtext. A few notes:

*Fr Flynn wears a cassock-alb - over his cassock. If cassock-albs were in fact around in 1964, priests weren't wearing them over cassocks.

*He also wears his stole over his chasuble.

*And an anachronistic looking floppy-collared ("monastic") violet chasuble.

*I didn't notice any maniples, and these were not made optional until the following year.

*The congregation sings the Taizé chant "Ubi caritas et amor." Was it written yet?

*They also sing "Praise God from whom all blessings flow" to Old 100th. In a Roman Catholic church in 1964?

I note that the film was shot at the Church of St Luke in the Fields, a liberal Catholic Episcopal church in New York.

I sometimes wonder how much these filmmakers paid their technical advisors, because they could have just bought me lunch and I'd have caught several errors that their consultants let slip through.

I also today bought The Screwed-Up Life of Charlie the Second, and depending on when I fall asleep tonight may finish before I do. I'll be reviewing it here.

When the cat's away...

Here beginneth the posting for 2009

Well, I am 21 as of today. Go me! An account of my Epiphany observance can be read here for all you fellow liturgy nerds.