No to Proposals, Yes to Progress

A new announcement at the news page on Fully Alive:

One of the main tasks of Fully Alive is to encourage a wider and deeper conversation in the Church about marriage. While we have a distinct point of view, we welcome engagement by those who disagree with us. To that end, we have asked a couple of our friends to write responses to our paper, “Marriage in Creation and Covenant,” which was published in the Anglican Theological Review. The first response, which you can read here, comes from the Rev. Canon Scott Gunn, who is the Executive Director of Forward Movement. We thank Father Gunn for the graciousness of his response and for his willingness to be a part of the conversation.

Scott Gunn writes, “Can We Be Witnesses to Christ’s Love?: A response to ‘Marriage in Creation and Covenant.’”

I am grateful for the opportunity to join with others in response to “Marriage in Creation and Covenant.” … My gratitude stems, in part, from the fact that this conversation is taking place. Too often, our church’s conversation on marriage has been defined by disrespectful extremes. It is not helpful to imagine that all those who support same-sex marriage care nothing about Scripture but are governed only by secular cultural or political interests. Nor is it helpful to imagine that all those who oppose same-sex marriage are uncritical readers of Scripture and homophobes.

Gunn believes that approval of same-sex marriage represents an “evolution in doctrine,” not just a change in discipline. He approves of the church moving forward in its discussion of this issue, but he does not recommend taking up the task force’s proposed canonical changes at this time: “The task force was a missed opportunity.”

Read his full conclusions here.

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