The news that the established church in Denmark, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, is now required by law to conduct same-sex marriage services is ominous for the Church of England. If UK government plans to redefine marriage in law come to fruition in England and Wales, a Danish model imposed on the national Church would seem an inevitable outcome.
However, there is a significant difference between the status of Danish clergy and their Church of England counterparts.
According to the website of the Lutheran Church of Denmark, its pastors are employed by the government's Ministry for Ecclesiastical Affairs.
Their status as government employees thus makes them uniquely vulnerable to a legalised same-sex marriage regime. By God's grace, British clergy in the established churches - the Church of England and the Church of Scotland - are not on the government pay-roll. So, the application of the Danish same-sex marriage regime to the British national churches is not as straightforward as might appear.
The news from Denmark still raises disturbing issues for religious liberty and freedom of conscience in a fellow EU country. Under the Danish law, a Lutheran minister may refuse to conduct a same-sex marriage ceremony but his or her local bishop is obliged to arrange a replacement to take the service.
As Archbishop Cranmer in his excellent post on the Danish development points out, the law assumes that the bishop will have no conscientious difficulty over same-sex marriage. But what would happen if he or she did? A jail sentence? A fine?
Furthermore, what happens if the members of the local Lutheran church required to host the ceremony object? Will they be allowed the right of peaceful protest outside the church building?
One could imagine the UK Public Order Act being used to prevent parishioners from protesting if same-sex marriage were introduced here and the Danish model were imposed on the established churches of Britain.
Some Church of England bishops would have no difficulty in arranging liberal replacements for Evangelical and Anglo-Catholic clergy refusing to conduct gay marriages. But other bishops certainly would have a problem.
Under such a regime, faithful servants of Jesus Christ in the Church of England would need to brace themselves to pay the cost of conscience. Some clergy might consider the UK too hostile a place for Christian ministry. They might choose to shake the dust off their feet and preach the gospel elsewhere.
It would indeed be ironic if we saw Church of England ministers seeking asylum in the former Eastern Bloc countries, which are significantly less enthusiastic about gay marriage than the politically correct establishment of the UK.
A version of this piece appeared on Heresy Corner.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
nice written
ReplyDeleteI was listening recently to a report from a group of Christians to the church in China
ReplyDeleteJust as they were leaving to go through the gate the Chinese hosts said that they would pray fro them. Just then the flight was delayed so they went for coffee and asked what the Church in China prays for the church in the West. They looked embarrassed, then admitted that they prayed for more persecution as they felt the church in the West was rather weak!
God has a plan, maybe the Lutheran Church will need to breakup or fight. Both might be good. Same choice will face the CofE, submit or compromise on conscience. Probably sooner rather than later.
If God wants us to live our faith and that involves personal cost, then we need to be ready to say so be it.
Try to force us to conduct Gay Weddings,polygamous marriage, bless abortions. Are you listening, Bishops, Government, EU, whoever?..... please bring it on..... we might finally wake up!
Phil
Phil Roberts, I hardly think circumstances that mean that (rightly) deciding not to compromise lead to shaking dust off feet and leaving the UK to preach the Gospel elsewhere, would be helpful to the Gospel in this land. Although the word says we can expect opposition and persecution, the reason we are commanded in 1 Tim 2:1-4 to pray particularly for government and authorities is due to the role they have in assisting the spreading Gospel and our living of godly peaceful lives. Loving our neighbour means being able to present the Gospel and Biblical truth to them.
ReplyDeleteIt is not always the case that persecution leads to increased effectiveness for the Gospel – e.g. cp the impacts of N and S Korea on world evangelism, that Gospel witness was virtually extinguished in France when the Huguenots were driven out, and that Christian communities are being diminished in places like Iraq and Palestinian territories.
And importantly I should have added that loving our neighbour also means we'd want marriage as ordained in creation to be promoted as this benefits society (not just Christians). The effects of family breakdown are well known, as is the fact that children do best with a married mother and father etc. The further undermining of marriage by the Government's proposed redefinition, which will apparently include telling schools to teach the redefined version, obviously won't help matters.
ReplyDeleteWell one of us will be right brother!
DeletePhil
Having lived with the French and the Koreans I don't think anyone understands them. Not even the French or Koreans. They must have been on the other side of the tower of Babel!