Evolve to meet needs

AYEAR ago, some Christian denominations lashed out at the “conservative” Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) after it announced it approved of same-sex unions and would now allow homosexual ministers to be ordained without the need for them to be celibate.

The decision was applauded by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, who said this was a surprising, yet warmly welcomed decision that would encourage many same-sex couples and individuals to return to the church.

How strange then that it is the supposedly progressive Anglican Church of Southern Africa which took a shocking and reactionary position on this issue at the weekend, with its provincial synod, its top legislative body, saying it will not allow “prayers of blessing” for people in same-sex civil unions.

This comes in the wake of Reverend Canon Mpho Tutu-Van Furth’s decision to quit rather than have her licence to preach be revoked by the Anglican Church after she married Marceline van Furth. While same-sex marriage was legalised in South Africa in 2006, the South African Anglican law on marriage states: “Holy matrimony is the lifelong and exclusive union between one man and one woman.”

The Bible is capable of so many divergent meanings, but the teachings of Christ are unequivocal: Love thy neighbour – irrespective of who they are, or the choices they make.

A successful faith is surely one that evolves to meet the needs of its flock in an ever-changing world, and indeed a world where members are no longer mindless sheep but fully democratised human beings, able to speak up for themselves and indeed to choose environments in which they feel their needs are better met.

The only casualty of a decision such as this by the synod is the Anglican Church itself, because it has shown itself to not be the all-encompassing and non-judgemental haven it has purported to be. It has chosen its own dogma, surely to its own detriment.