The Anglican Year in Review 2012

by George Conger
January 6, 2013

Excerpt:
...The General Convention of the Episcopal Church introduced same-sex blessings at the start of Advent through a canonical sleight of hand. While gay marriage would require the revision of the Book of Common Prayer and trial rites for same-sex marriage or blessings would have required a supermajority of bishops – the church created a new, non-canonical category, called provisional temporary liturgical rites that allowed it to adopt gay rites by a simple majority vote.

However, the Episcopal Church permitted conservative dioceses to ban gay rites, creating a situation where in some dioceses gay marriages are seen as blessed whilst in others they are sinful.

The fall out over gay rites along with disputes over the nature and person of Jesus Christ (is he a way or the way to the Father) saw one of the original dioceses of the Episcopal Church withdraw from the General Convention.

In November South Carolina quit the Episcopal Church after Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori deposed Bishop Mark Lawrence without trial for abandoning the communion of the church – a charge the South Carolina bishop denied...