No need for alarm, folks!

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Jul 21, 2003

From The Age (Melbourne, Australia, July 19):

Uniting Church congregations will receive pastoral letters explaining that this week's decision approving gay and lesbian candidature for ordination clarified existing church practice and asking for healing for those hurt by the debate.

It's a good bet that, unless you have some special interest in questions of church polity among Australian Protestants, you were unaware of the controversy to which this paragraph refers. You may even be unclear on what the Uniting Church is. That said, if you've been paying attention to the machinations of bureaucrats in any ecclesial setting, you probably harbor the suspicion that any pastoral letter which a) purports to clarify the status quo, and b) simultaneously calls for healing, is disingenuous.

Know what? You'd be right.