Once upon a time there was a bishop who lived in a seaside realm, a great city of concrete, glass and steel surrounded by mountains and trees and ocean and gardens and flowers. It was a very beautiful city full of all kinds of people, from all kinds of nations, of all kinds of races, all kinds of religions and all kinds of sexualities. It was a very happy city for the rich and a place of misery for the poor.
The bishop was a very kind and just man. He wanted all religions and all sexualities to have a place at the table in his church. He even threw a few scraps to the miserable poor whom he otherwise ignored while seeking to welcome people of all religious faiths and all sexualities to worship with him and his darling lay people at the same table. Tolerance, acceptance and mutual respect would rule supreme in his magic kingdom in the seaside realm. He even gave a thought or two to the poor.
There was great opposition to the bishop's plans but only in a handful of parishes. To many he was a hero. Then the rulers of the realm decreed that two men could marry each other and two women could marry each other and they would be every bit as married as any man to any woman. The handful of parishes were wroth and they broke away from the diocese and there was much bitterness and lamentation. The bishop and his clergy blessed the same sex unions and even began to pay more attention to the plight of the poor whom they began to welcome to their table.
Now there was a wise old man, very pious and devout who gave his life and time to the service of God through caring for the poor and the mentally ill. He had also suffered greatly in his youth and lived now in a special building for the poor. The building was managed by a society of Christians very friendly with one of the parishes that rebelled against the bishop's decree for same sex marriage since the Christians in charge of his building also recognize as valid but one sexuality and two sexes.
The wise old man is a faithful Anglican and this might help keep him wise. He understands that his church is far from perfect and needs to grow but he accepts same-sex marriage much as his fellow Anglicans. Being a wise old man he muses that marriage is quite a chronic issue for his Christian denomination which began long ago in olden times when the king of England wanted a divorce and the Pope refused to grant him one. The English king divorced his Spanish wife to marry a fair young Englishwoman. He wanted her to bear him a son, then chopped off her head when she bore him but one daughter who would one day be queen. His holiness the pope excommunicated the king of England and all his subjects.
The king of England and all his heirs unto this current generation have since all sat as head of the Church of England and his holiness the pope is never amused but this may also pass. The wise old man has thought of attending one of the dinners provided to the tenants of his building by some of the denizens of the breakaway parish. He has also thought of asking some of them if they have perhaps pondered and prayed and come to a place of repentance and are prepared now to accept as married two men or two women who wish to be married.
The wise old man is still weary from the energy squandered in pointless quarrels of religion and faith throughout his youth. He is going to stay in his little chamber, cook and eat his own meals with joy and eat his own bread with satisfaction and should he happen upon the members of the breakaway parish who approve not of gay marriage he is going to take great care to say nothing of same sex marriage or of the Anglican Church, welcome them cordially if not sincerely and slink back to his habitation. The wise old man has learned to pick his battles. That is what makes him wise.
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