Nottingham meeting overshadowed by other issue (Sunday Times, London)

[Louie Crew <lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu>]

Original article:

> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1632517,00.html
> 
> The Sunday Times - Britain
> 
> May 29, 2005
> 
> Church to let gay clergy "marry" but they must stay
> celibate
>
> Christopher Morgan
>
> HOMOSEXUAL priests in the Church of England will be
> allowed to "marry" their boyfriends under a proposal
> drawn up by senior bishops, led by Rowan Williams, the
> Archbishop of Canterbury.
> 
> The decision ensures that gay and lesbian clergy who
> wish to register relationships under the new "civil
> partnerships" law -- giving them many of the tax and
> inheritance advantages of married couples -- will not
> lose their licences to be priests.
> 
> They will, however, have to give an assurance to their
> diocesan bishop that they will abstain from sex. 
....

[See the full article at the site given above]

-----

I admit to considerable ignorance of heterosexuality, especially as 
heterosexuals try to set up norms for my community.  Witness the 
article above from today's Sunday TIMES.

Under the proposal, will a priest married to another of the same 
gender be able to kiss?  Hold hands?  Hug intimately?  Drink to the 
partner only with eyes?

Are those not sexual acts for heterosexuals?  If not, what constitutes 
the boundary beyond which these couples cannot go?

In 1959 while in a regular magazine store, I saw a policemen smiling 
very intently as he "read" a popular nudist magazine.  He seemed 
annoyed at the distraction when I, a beginning teacher at a prep 
school up the road in Rome, Georgia, asked, "Officer, what would you 
have to see to arrest the owner of the book store?"

That's much the same question I am asking of hetero prurience in 
regard to the article from the Sunday TIMES.

The policeman's answer in 1959 was swift and clear, and it still 
surprises me by its narrow specificity:  "Pubic hair."

Anything else could be shown. That explained why the models in the 
pictures were always fully shaved on that part of their bodies.

Somehow I hope that as Anglicans we can muddle our way through this 
one with more grace than the Atlanta policeman manifested in 1959... 
I hope the church won't bring back chastity belts and other medieval 
paraphernalia.

Lutibelle/Louie
Chair of the Newark Deputation, Member of Executive Council