New Zealand Gay ordination threatens to split church
Pastor Dale Morgan
*New Zealand Gay ordination threatens to split church*
From correspondents in Wellington
November 03, 2006 07:28am
Article from: Agence France-Presse
NEW ZEALAND - PLANS to ordain a gay man threaten to split the Church of
England in New Zealand, clergy were reported saying today.
The conservative group, Anglican Mainstream, is opposing the ordination
of Juan Kinnear as a deacon in the southern city of Dunedin on Saturday.
Christchurch clergyman Reverend Malcolm Falloon told the Otago Daily
Times the ordination could split the church and the group had written to
the country's archbishops to have it stopped or postponed.
Bishop George Connor, who will conduct the ordination, accepted the move
would be controversial, but said the Dunedin diocesan council were
satisfied it was in line with past practice and the rules of the church.
Rev Kinnear was in a "committed same-sex relationship", he said.
The bishop said the issue of sexuality was currently being debated by
the Church of England and "people of goodwill and deeply reasoned faith
stand on both sides of the argument".
In September, members of the Presbyterian assembly in New Zealand voted
to exclude homosexuals from becoming ministers or church elders.