“Marriage is to do with the church’s relationship to her redeemer. What could be more core doctrine than that?” Nazir Ali
At the fourth Chavasse Lecture at Wycliffe Hall on July 4, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali of Rochester responded to a question about the recent motion at the Canadian General Synod.
Q. Can you comment on the motion that the Canadian General Synod has passed asserting that blessing of same-sex relationships is not a matter of core doctrine?
A. First, the Book of Genesis affirms that humanity is made in God’s image, male and female together, and is given a common mission which they fulfil in distinctive ways. As Karl Barth said, this makes marriage and the family the most visible sign of that image.
Secondly this is clarified further in the teaching of Jesus. Mark 10 1-9 (“The two will become one fleshâ€) is set as the gospel for the wedding service, and when I preached at wedding services in Pakistan many Muslim women used to come to enquire further about it as they had never heard about this way in which the relationship between men and women is ordered.
Thirdly, Ephesians 5.32 (“This is a profound mystery, but I am talking about Christ and the churchâ€) is the only place where the word ‘sacrament’ which is the translation of the Greek word ‘mysterion’, is used in the New Testament. It affirms that marriage is a sacrament of Christ and the church. Fundamentally this is to do with the Church’s relationship to her redeemer. What could be more core doctrine than that?
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