We are but witnesses

I love the Quakers. I find it quite inspiring the way they have come to a decision on same-sex marriage. They have produced a fantastic document, designed to explain their decision to other faith communities, that you can download here.

The most signigicant paragraph of their decision is this one:

…we are being led to treat same sex committed
relationships in the same way as opposite sex marriages,
reaffirming our central insight that marriage is the Lord’s
work and we are but witnesses. The question of legal
recognition by the state is secondary.

It's such a spiritually and theologically articulate decision, and also one that is incredibly simple.

It's worth reading if your community is making a decision about same-sex marriage, as my own is doing soon.

Comments

Yewtree said…

Yes, and I liked your article about this in The Inquirer.

I think we need to articulate our theology and ethics - even where we disagree (we do after all have a theological basis for disagreeing, articulated in the Edict of Torda in 1562).

It is possible to set out one's theology whilst remaining open to other ideas.

Any theology worth its salt should explain how other theologies are different and how they can be reconciled; after all theology is a symbolic system, not an objective description. As the Buddhists say, the finger pointing at the Moon is not the Moon.

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