A civil partnership of a Church of Ireland minister threatens the church’s international links within the Anglican Communion and with other Christian churches, a Church of Ireland minister has said.
The Rev Alan McCann said that as the news of the Very Rev Tom Gordon’s same-sex union has spread around the world on the internet he has been contacted by Christian leaders in north America and Africa raising concerns about future co-operation on mission work.
The Rev McCann, who is also a deputy grand chaplain in the Orange Order, said that dean Gordon’s civil partnership had ended the “hypocrisy” in the church, which was “heading for a split if this is not addressed”.
In a searing assessment of his own church’s handling of an issue which has threatened schism in the worldwide Anglican Communion, the Rev McCann claimed that the Church of Ireland had attempted to ignore “the elephant in the room” by not taking a position on whether homosexuality is normal or sinful.
The Rev McCann is a committee member of Reform Ireland, one of four Church of Ireland groups which earlier this week issued a statement demanding answers from the church hierarchy. He said that it was a “line in the sand” for evangelical members of the church, who are mostly found in parishes north of the border. To read more, click here.
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