Clergy departed

I was amused to read the story ‘‘Schism grows over first gay blessing’’ in Saturday’s Press.

This is a blatant misstatement – if only because the clergy who have left the Anglican Church over same-sex blessings had already departed before the first such blessing had taken place.

I, for one, as an Anglican priest, am glad our church has opened the way for civillymarried same-sex couples who are church members to have their partnerships blessed in the church.

This shows an openness to the understanding that samesex partnerships are all the better for being officially recognised by the church as capable of being faithful, monogamous, loving and lifelong.

In an age where even heterosexual marriages often end in failure, it is surely good to encourage same-sex partners, who have no other way of expressing their inbuilt sexual nature, to commit themselves to one another in a bond of faithfulness comparable to a marriage.

Bishop Peter, in allowing for such relationships to be blessed in our Church, is only complying with our General Synod’s requirement for such blessings to be offered to those couples who wish to include God in their relationship.

Human beings were created to love, rather than to hate one another.

Every expression of human loving has something of God in it.

Father Ron Smith, Christchurch No it’s not.

It is a laughing stock. Andrew Luddington, Tai Tapu