TEC endorses gay blessings: Anglican Ink, July 11, 2012

By a 3 to 1 margin, the House of Deputies of the 77th General Convention has endorsed “provisional” local rites for the blessing of same-sex unions, concurring with the resolution adopted the previous day by the church’s House of Bishops.

While opponents of the measure objected to the gay-marriage-like blessings as being contrary to Scripture, the church’s prayer book and canons, as well as the undivided witness of the universal church for the past 2000 years, supporters believed that blessing gay relationships was a matter of simple justice and fairness.

The provisional rites were not intended to change to the Book of Common Prayer’s liturgy on marriage, the Rev. Dr. Ruth Myers, Deputy from Chicago and chairman of the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Church Music told Anglican Ink, but to permit local trial usage for the next three years.  “The church has not authorized prayer book change,” she explained.  The historical practice had been an “overall” update to the prayer book rather than “rather than revising one liturgy at a time.”

However, the Rev. Charles Holt, Deputy from Central Florida, noted the nuance of a “provisional” local rite that did not change the doctrine of the church would not be appreciated outside of the convention hall.  “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck … it is a duck,” he observed.

Read it all in Anglican Ink.