Letters from the week of 25 February - 3 March 2019

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Including Inclusion

Thank you for you editorial challenging the common cited word "inclusion" as being one that is only given lip service in the Anglican Church.

As a priest in the Diocese of Toronto who rejoiced when Bishop Kevin Robertson was elected as a suffragan Bishop I was stunned by the announcement that his lifelong life partner—his spouse—would not be invited to Lambeth 2020. What a shallow and inappropriate action. As was mentioned, the comments by the President of the House of Deputies of the US Episcopal Church were on the mark. How can one defend the definition of marriage when many of the Bishops attending have been remarried? So much for a life-long commitment between a man and an women. Under the cloak of a "gay agenda" traditionalists are rallying to uphold, what at its best, is a broken tradition.

If I hear one more conservative christian speak about such inclusion being part of the "gay agenda" I will lose my mind. Far from a gay agenda to include same-sex relationships on a equal standing with heterosexual relationships, inclusion is a human issue. Equity based on our common humanity. Inclusion simply because we are unique and human. I am unsure where the Archbishop of Canterbury is on the issue of changing the marriage canon to allow for same-sex marriages. If he is remaining neutral just for the sake of keeping the Anglican Communion together there seems little that will appease GAFCON other than returning to patriarchy and power. For the record I am a heterosexual male who has been married to the same partner for close to 40 years. I support widening the canon to include the solemnization of two committed persons to a monogamous—exclusive life relationship.

The Rev. Donald Shields
St. Thomas Brooklin (Whitby)
Whitby, ON, Canada
planet.shields@gmail.com
25 February 2019

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