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Montréal Anglican diocese consecrates first woman bishop
September 22, 2015 - 4:35pm
Welcome to the 19th century!!!
Source.
Better a few decades late than never, I suppose.
Do you think the woman-hating Catholics, Muslims, and (various sects of) Jews will take notice and re-examine their hatreds?
Hope springs eternal.
I'm still thrilled at our Westmount synagogue that has a married lesbian as Rabbi. If I believed in that religious crap, I'd go there just to reward their initiative.
As much of an oxymoron liberalism and religion is,the Anglican church is pretty liberal next to other organized religions.
I think the Anglican church was also the first to perform gay marriages. But I could be wrong.
Sadly, you are very wrong. The Anglicans do not perform gay marriages. Some of them will "bless" them ex post facto. Perhaps you're thinking of the United Church, which is light years ahead of the Anglicans on just about every front.
Thanks for the reality check. I admit that I'm blissfully ignorant when it comes to religion.
Ya, the UCC definitely leads the way. But among Christian churches, they're the Dr. Pepper to the Pepsi and Coke of the Anglicans and Catholics.
Living where I do, and shopping where I do, and working where I do, I go past a little church called "St. Stephen-in-the-Fields" all the time. It's just north and a little west of Kensington market, and I think it was originally Anglican. It's kind of a very (very) scaled down version of Trinity-St. Paul's, complete with a bona fide pipe organ. They also play host to freechurch which seems kind of interesting. I don't really know much about them, but they'll sometime have signs outside that say things like "We're really sorry about all that end-times stuff". It's an interesting approach.
When I was a kid, our family (that would be Mom, Dad and me) started going to church because, among other things, my folks had heard that instead of some staid and boring old organ, the church now had someone playing folky hymns on a guitar. A guitar! And it was true. Folky hymns. ON A GUITAR. And the priest was a former NFL player who'd traded the tough-guy life for vestments. My parents were hooked for a good couple of years, even though it was still the same old Catholic Church. Same prayers, same mass, same stale bread. BUT WITH GUITARS and Father Nick.
Guitars are good. Gender equality is better. But when it comes to religion, I guess every little bit helps.
St Stephen's is still Anglican, Magoo. You should stop in, it's usually open and has a very earnest and friendly sign inviting everyone to stop in. The pastor is a lovely person and a poet, and the church is a hotbed of activism. That grafitti about Line 9 on the side of the building? They spraypainted their own church.
The Unitarians performed same-sex marriages before the United Chuch (they performed mine, actually). I think the Unitarians were the first to perform "mixed marriages" in the segregated American South, too. But I could be wrong.
This is nice for Montreal, but what was much cooler in my view was the naming of Bishop Lydia Mamakwa to head the first indigenous diocese in the Anglican church, Indigenous Spiritual Ministry of Mishamikoweesh.
Mrs. Magoo and I did stop in once. That's how I know about the organ. :)
I meant to mention the Unitarians, but I've always considered them too human to be a, like, religion.
The Minister who did the ceremony for my last marriage was United. We weren't gay but he was. I am sure neither he nor his church care about the gender of the wedding party.
I'm stumbling on this very late, I know, but Montreal is one of the dioceses where the religious nuptial service is available for same-sex couples, but at present you still need to get the legal part done in the notary's office first. The Dean of Montreal has said this should be the procedure for all marriages, just like in France.
Not only in France. Also in officially secular but very Catholic (and Indigenous belief-systems) Mexico, and in Italy where the Catholics have the firm's head office.
Any weddings I've been to in France were at la Mairie (Town Hall, also refers to Borough Halls in Paris and other major cities; friends were married at la Mairie du 19e arrondissement), but I think one can now book officiants elsewhere. They are secular. Religious people will hold some kind of Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist etc ceremony if they so desire, but it has no legal standing.
In Italy I was only at the receptions, as the legal ceremony was just signing up with a couple of witnesses (probably because Church "weddings" are still popular there, and my friends are hardcore atheists). The big outdoor meal was the main event.
I don't know why Canada doesn't do likewise - i.e., you want a religious ceremony, fine, but your legal marriage doesn't happen there. That would eliminate the obscenity of men dressed in medieval outfits performing legal marriages but refusing same-sex couples etc. by invoking their constitutional freedom to hate.
And in fact, I do know a few priests (all women - coincidence?) who will not perform any marriages, in part because they do not want to do so unless they can for both same- and mixed-gender couples, but also in some cases because they do not believe it is the role of a priest to act as civil registrars. Mr Magoo mentioned St Stephen-in-the-Fields in Toronto. Its rector, who was profiled in a Globe feature last summer, does not solemnize marriages.