I'm curious mousethief, do you think you have been helping the situation by your recent postings here? All I've seen is judgment and scorn: is this the graceful, positive posting we should be doing?
Moscow Patriarchate Priest Marries Homosexual Couple!!!
Follow-up....
Russian Church Defrocks Priest Who Married Gays
Tue Oct 7
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian Orthodox Church said on Tuesday it had defrocked the priest who conducted Russia's first reported homosexual wedding amid fierce worldwide debate over the Christian church's attitude to homosexuality.
Denis Gogolev and Mikhail Morozov have said they paid Father Vladimir Enert $490 to marry them last month in church -- an act the Church branded blasphemous.
"We defrocked him, prohibited him from serving and condemned the act itself, which we saw as pure blasphemy," said Father Igor Pchelintsev, spokesman for the diocese of Nizhny Novgorod, a historic city on the Volga river where the wedding took place.
He said the Holy Synod had confirmed the stand taken by the diocese in September.
"We have decided to expel Father Vladimir Enert from sacred office after he voluntarily carried out this blasphemous act," the Church said on its Web site www.orthodox.org.ru.
The Russian controversy comes as the 70-million strong Anglican Church faces one of the biggest crises in its history over the appointment of homosexual bishops. It is also torn over its attitude toward same-sex unions.
The Russian Orthodox Church not only bans same-sex marriages and homosexual priests, it advocates barring gays and lesbians from teaching jobs or senior positions in the army and prisons.
Debate over same-sex weddings is rare in Russia, which remains deeply homophobic although homosexual relations between men -- a crime in Soviet times -- were legalized in 1993.
Post subject: Follow-up....
I found this interesting, after originally reading this here, I wanted to get some more info, so I did a web search. Pages of hits for every homosexual news/information site out there. A doctrinal matter for the Russian Orthodox church, and every homosexual site on the web picked this story up. I think the pressure for every religion (maybe with the exception of Islam), to accept homosexual marriage is a major part of the homosexual agenda. And to clarify what I mean, I don't think this is an issue for every homosexual individual, but I think the leadership of various homosexual rights groups are pursuing this very strongly. For example, there is a currently a homosexual film festival taking place in my city. The organizers wrote an article for the newspaper this week discussing homosexual marriage and the homosexual Episcopal bishop. I'm sorry, but what does that have to do with a festival of independant films that really, no one is going to see anyway?
My dad sent this to me.
Same-sex marriage chapel demolished
By Julius Strauss in Moscow
(Filed: 09/10/2003)
The Russian Orthodox Church has demolished a chapel where a priest conducted a marriage ceremony between two men.
The Chapel of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was apparently knocked down after local churchmen decided it had been defiled.
The "marriage" of Denis Gogolyev and Mikhail Morozev in Nizhny Novgorod scandalised the Orthodox Church and created outrage among ordinary Russians. The priest, Fr Vladimir Enert, was unfrocked after the men said they paid him a £300 bribe to ignore a ban on same-sex marriages.
A spokesman for the Orthodox Church said the chapel had to go as it had been desecrated. Some local officials said it was due for demolition to make way for new, larger church, although this would not open until 2005.
A spokesman for the Nizhny Novgorod Patriarchate told The Telegraph: "The chapel was dismantled because it is no longer needed." But he admitted that the "marriage" may have "sped up the process".
Evil has succeeded beyond even its expectations,
- it created scandal and discord
- it desecrated a sacred act…marriage
- it ruined and destroyed a servant of God
- it desecrated a holy place
- and now it has seen to the destruction of a church
I would not want to be in the shoes of the people who were its instruments….may God be merciful to them! :ohvey: 