A Church of Eire Common Synod member who proposed a movement which known as for babies to be baptised “irrespective of the marital status of the parents” mentioned she is upset that it used to be unwelcome and that it sends the message that we’re going again to a era “when clergy could judge a woman”.
The movement which used to be defeated desire to safeguard that the kid of an single mom will have to no longer be refused Baptism.
It’s on the discretion of clergy within the church whether or not they baptise this sort of kid.
The movement, proposed Prof Patricia Barker of Dublin and Glendalough diocese and seconded by means of Lynn Wright of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh diocese, known as for babies to be baptised “irrespective of the marital status of the parents”.
It used to be Prof Barker’s 2nd struggle in order the movement to Common Synod. “I tried last year but it was deferred to this year,” she mentioned. “This year we had all our ducks in a row, legals etc,” she added. She repeated, and as she informed the Common Synod in Armagh endmost hour, that “a number of accounts of this practice had emerged in the intervening year” along with others she was conscious about prior to now.
Then again, ahead of her proposal used to be heard at Common Synod this presen, a petition used to be offered in move by means of seven clergy which supposed that, rather of the movement being put to a common vote, it could be “by orders”, with laity and clergy balloting one by one and requiring a majority of each and every for it to be handed.
Prof Barker felt it used to be “so sad that we are going back to a time when clergy could judge a woman in this way”.
She idea it could be “a wonderful question” to invite related clergy what they’d do if faced with Mary, the single mom of Jesus whose father used to be no longer even her betrothed, Joseph.
Bishop Michael Burrows informed his congregation at St Mary’s Church of Eire Cathedral in Limerick that he used to be “cross” following the vote and puzzled “whether the Church of Ireland is still the place I thought I knew and loved”.
The movement offered to Common Synod “was simply a statement that the marital status of parents alone should be affirmed as not being an impediment to the grace of Baptism”, Bishop Borrows informed his Limerick congregation.
Within the Common Synod vote, 69 clergy had been in preference with 72 in opposition to, year of lay delegates 144 had been in preference with 83 in opposition to. Because of clergy rejection, the movement fell.
“The optics of such an event are appalling and shameful and we have sent out a message to the world in an Ireland which should know, God knows, enough about the awful treatment of single mothers in the past,” mentioned Bishop Burrows.
Amongst those that antagonistic the movement used to be Archdeacon of Derry Robert Miller who mentioned he believed the movement used to be “unnecessary since the Church of Ireland’s generous orthodoxy around the sacrament of Baptism is already enshrined in the Canons [rules]”.
For his phase “in almost 30 years of ordained ministry I have never denied Baptism but rather embraced it as an opportunity to welcome, engage and disciple”. The movement “to instruct a minister that they ‘must’ baptise would only, I believe, have impaired this engagement between minister and parishioner — an engagement built on trust.”