Theological Considerations on The Blessing of Same-Sex Unions

Introduction:

As a reflection on the topic of how theology impacts the discussion of the issue of the blessing of same-sex unions one must first consider how one explores a topic from a theological perspective. One might ask how does a theologian with a specific focus address this issue. For instance how might the perspective of a Process Theologian be different from a Feminist Theologian, from a Systematic Theologian. How does one reflect theologically on this issue and also what images are evoked as one considers the various aspects of the theology of this issue of the blessing of same-sex unions.

This commission has considered the papers presented to the Diocese of Toronto on this issue, and have used these papers that were obtained from the Diocese of Toronto website page entitled, “Resources available from consultation on same-sex blessings.”

A short summary has been written on each of the papers to accompany the papers so as to encourage readers to reflect theologically on this issue.

SYNOPSIS

Theology of Blessings and Liturgies of Blessings

Canon John Hill

This paper addresses the following four questions:

What does blessing mean in the Christian tradition?

Why does the church bless opposite-sex couples (that is, why did we get into the wedding business?)

Why do some of us believe it is good and right to extend this blessing to homosexual couples?

Does this mean supporting ‘gay marriage’?

Canon Hill begins by providing the context of the use of blessing in the Christian tradition. He describes blessing as that which God does toward the world. Because people are grateful for God’s blessing so the Christian tradition has been to return the blessing to God. This is done in the context of a liturgical act such as the Eucharist.

He points out over time Christian thinking has created an artificial distinction between thanksgiving and blessing. He contends it is necessary that the church needs to reclaim the original meaning of blessing as an act of thanksgiving for something that is already “good and holy,” and that when people receive Eucharist they are in fact receiving God’s blessing on their relationship.

In order to help us reflect on the question of why does the church bless opposite-sex couples he traces the evolution of marriage in Christian history, for instance from polygamy to monogamy, and so on. He goes on to point on that the great significance placed on the blessing of marriage is that it reflects the relationship of the love of God for humanity, that is, “covenant faithfulness.”

He concludes that if people believe that same-sex relationships have the same attributes of holiness as a opposite-sex relationship then the church is obliged to bless same-sex relationships, and to use the same questions to determine the authenticity of the relationship.

Finally Hill dismisses the word marriage or “holy matrimony” as not relevant in this time since it is not really satisfactory for use with describing either union be it an opposite-sex couple or a same-sex couple. He believes the best description for the recognition of a relationship union within the faith community is “blessing.”