Irish Boundaries

Having taken a foot out, the Church of Ireland General Synod decided to put the foot back in. It bundled together motions that had been withdrawn, after bishops thought they should be discussed. The notion that it is better to let sleeping dogs lie was thus put to one side, and the dogs were woken up.

The motion affirms the superiority of scriptures and then immediately asserts that marriage is by one man and one woman. Well, that's not consistent in the Bible at all. It is pretty strong on polygamy as well. So the Church asserts Scripture and also its own Canon 31. Then it says, to make it clear, if you want to fuck you have to be a man and a woman and already in marriage.

This is a bit like saying, in a country with computers, that letter writing in business should be carried out properly with a typewriter. It is like looking into sunshine and describing a snowstorm. It isn't even up to reality with heterosexuality, never mind any other form of sexuality.

On the other hand, if you are in a relationship of another form, and fucking, the Church is asking its other people to be courteous and understanding. That's decency. But presumably, to make disciples of all people is to bring them to a condition where fucking only takes place between a man and a woman in a heterosexual marriage. So a gay or lesbian relationship person, on entering this Church, and becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ according to its understanding, should stop fucking, and stop engaging in serious sexual contact (presumably penetration), and instead become close friends. If they don't, then they are the equivalent of sinners. Heterosexual people before any potential marriage should also stop it.

This is important, because rather than let sleeping dogs lie and at least give the sense of an open possibility of future revision, the Church has made a decision. The decision includes looking towards work on Human Sexuality in the Context of Christian Belief by a Standing Committee, though presumably no mistake has been made in affirming now the exclusion of fucking from all forms of relationship other than the marriage of one man and one woman.

So the obvious result of this is that all people who are gay and lesbian and active (who penetrate one another - and lesbians do too) and all those who fuck prior to getting married, should consider themselves sinful and in need of stopping, should they be members of the Church. The other thing to do is to leave.

The Church of Ireland, and indeed no Church, has any moral reach other than for those who sign up to its strictures (and scriptures). It has made a decision and done so in recent times and therefore excludes those who take a different view. At present I am separated and regard myself free to enter a relationship with another person in full freedom of as much sexual involvement as consented between those of us directly involved. I do not regard this as sinful, despite a formal ticket of marriage still being on the books. I don't live in Ireland, but should I move there I can confirm that I won't be joining up. Not that I would, on belief grounds.

It just seems to me that if you are not in a heterosexual marriage, and you are fucking someone else happily and consensually, and you are a member of the Church of Ireland, then you either ought to stop fucking or leave the Church of Ireland.