Sam Smith Video Features Gay Wedding Filmed At Anglican Church In London

Via Rolling Stone:

Grammy nominee and Rolling Stone cover star Sam Smith unveiled the video for his new single "Lay Me Down," the latest track off his platinum-selling debut album In the Lonely Hour. The video, filmed at the parish church of St. Margaret, Lee outside London and directed by Ryan Hope, finds Smith performing his ballad in front of what appears to be a mournful funeral but turns out to be a joyous gay marriage, a controversial situation given the United Kingdom's (and The Church's) stand on same-sex marriages. Rolling Stone was on set with Smith as the singer talked about the message behind the video. "Obviously gay marriage isn't legal in churches, and we're doing a gay marriage today, in the church. We're the first ever to do it. It's obviously not a real marriage, but still," Smith tells Rolling Stone from the set. "The priest just said to us, 'We're going against the rules by doing this today,' which I thought was a lovely element in the video.

Smith writes at his YouTube channel:

This song holds a very dear place in my heart. With this video myself and Ryan Hope the director have decided to make a statement and showcase something we passionately believe in. This video shows my dreams that one day gay men and women and transgendered men and women all over the world, like all our straight families and friends, will be able to get married under any roof, in any city, in any town, in any village, in any country. I hope you enjoy it. I love you all, x.

Lovely track, gorgeous clip. I think Rolling Stone might be wrong, it seems like the wedding part is a flashback to before the funeral. UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter is wondering too.

UGANDA: Anglican Archbishop Calls For Re-Passage Of Anti-Homosexuality Act

The archbishop of the Anglican Church of Uganda has called on the national legislature to re-approve the brutal Anti-Homosexuality Act, which was struck down last week on a technicality. Via Pink News:

Archbishop Stanley Ntagali said the court’s decision was a disappointment, and that Parliament should rush to restore the law. The ruling effectively killed the law in its current iteration, but there is nothing to stop Parliament from passing a near-identical bill to restore the provisions. He said: “The court of public opinion has clearly indicated its support for the Act, and we urge Parliament to consider voting again on the Bill with the proper quorum in place. “We also hope that Parliament will take this opportunity to make clear the parts of the Bill that were ambiguous and difficult to enforce. “I appeal to all God-fearing people and all Ugandans to remain committed to the support against homosexuality, which is contrary to God’s order, until the law protects our families, the youth and children of our country.”

RELATED: Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has denied that the court's ruling had anything to do the suspension of foreign aid by several nations or with his visit to the United States this week for a summit of African nations with the US State Department. Museveni has not yet indicated whether he will push for the bill's reinstatement.

UGANDA: Anglican Church Bishop Applauds Anti-Homosexuality Bill

Clip recap:

The Anglican Church has applauded Parliament for standing firm and passing the contentious the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. While giving a Christmas sermon at St. Paul's Cathedral Namirembe, Bishop Wilberforce Kityo Luwalira said Parliament should continue to protect the country's conservative customs. He also asked Parliament to pass a law, which outlaws abortion. As Agness Nandutu reports, other pentecostal churches also added their voice against homosexuality in Uganda.

Lutheran And Anglican Churches To Align In "Holy Battle" Against LGBT Rights

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and the Anglican Church have agreed to unite in "holy battle" against the civil equality of LGBT Americans. The Christian Post reports:

The cooperation between the two denominations is a reason for joy at a time when "there is a widespread failure to recognize the biblical teaching regarding the creation of man and woman and their biblical roles, life-issues, and other grave challenges that society faces," LCMS President the Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison said in a statement Friday as the two bodies released a joint report summarizing the areas of agreement. The joint report recognizes "a pervasive threat to the understanding of marriage as the life-long union of a man and woman as husband and wife and oppose any efforts to redefine marriage in any other terms." The churches affirmed the biblical teaching that God intends sexuality only to be fully enacted within the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman. "We oppose efforts within society or by some churches to view other sexual relationships as moral alternatives to heterosexual marriage."

Archbishop Of Wales Backs Marriage

More support from surprising places.

The Archbishop of Wales has lent his support to gay marriage today, saying: “All life-long committed relationships deserved the welcome, pastoral care and support of the Church." In his presidential address to members of the Church in Wales’ Governing Body in Llandudno, Dr Barry Morgan said Christians "need to show how the Gospel of Jesus is good news for gay people". He said the church had to ask itself whether it would "protect and support pastorally, faithful, stable, lifelong relationships of whatever kind in order to encourage human values such as love and fidelity and recognise the need in Christian people for some public religious support for these". He said he was concerned about the welfare of gay people whom he feared could feel uncomfortable and unwelcome in churches over the coming months as Government proposals for same-sex marriage are debated nationally."

VIRGINIA: Leader Of Anti-Gay Episcopal Sect Fired In Pornography Scandal

Episcopal Rev. Marshall Brown, who helped 14 Virginia parishes leave the main church in protest of the elevation of openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson, has been fired by his Fairfax, Virginia parish for viewing pornography on church computers. It was Brown's Truro Church that led the continuing schism in the Episcopal Church over the ordination of gays.

Truro's rejection of what its congregants saw as a non-biblical liberal tilt in the denomination made international news. Dozens of Episcopal churches have since joined an umbrella group of religious conservatives who oppose the acceptance of same-sex relationships and the idea that non-Christian religions have equal access to God. In 2005, Truro arranged for Brown, now 57, to get treatment for an Internet addiction after he reported having a problem, according to Bishop Martyn Minns, who was Truro's rector at the time and is now bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, the umbrella group of breakaway churches.

Since the split with the mother church, Truro has been embroiled in lawsuits over the ownership of its properties, which are valued in the tens of millions of dollars. Nice work, Rev. Busyfingers! So which was it? Manhunt? Sean Cody?

PhoboQuotable - Jeff Walton

"Last week there were over 500 people who were killed in three villages surrounding Jos, Nigeria. These Christian villagers were killed for their faith. The people who attacked them were yelling 'God is great' in Arabic, and one of the charges against the Christians was that they were immoral. When a Muslim sees the newspaper headline, 'Anglican elects partnered lesbian bishop,' they don't draw a distinction between African Christians and European or American Christians." - Jeff Walton of the Institute on Religion & Democracy, saying that the promotion of Mary Glasspool to Anglican bishop will result in the murders of Christians.

Episcopal Church Names Mary Glasspool Its Second Openly Gay Bishop

Rev. Mary Glasspool has been named the second openly gay bishop of the Episcopal Church.

A majority of bishops and dioceses of the Episcopal Church have approved the election of the church’s second openly gay bishop, the Rev. Mary D. Glasspool, a decision likely to increase the tension with fellow Anglican churches around the world that do not approve of homosexuality. The worldwide Anglican Communion, the network of churches connected to the Church of England, has been in turmoil since the Americans elected their first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson, in New Hampshire in 2003. Theological conservatives in the Communion say the Bible condemns homosexuality, while liberals say the Scripture is open to interpretation. Bishop Glasspool, 56, is to be consecrated as one of two new assistant bishops, known as suffragan bishops, in Los Angeles on May 15. Both elected suffragan bishops are women — the first ever to serve in the diocese.

In October of last year, the Pope invited Anglicans to join the Catholic Church if they were disgusted with open gays and women in the pulpit. The Freepers are already losing their shit over Glasspool's promotion. A sampling:

-"A God scorned will unleash the fury of hell!"
-"It is the new American plan. The Gays take over the church, and the Marxist take over the government."
- "Lucifer must be laughing has ass off."
- "Mary Cesspool — the dyke version of Vikie Gene Robinson."

PhoboQuotable - Archbishop Henry Orombi

"The Church of Uganda associates itself with the concerns expressed in the Anti Homosexuality Bill 2009. However, instead of a completely new bill, the church recommends a bill that amends the Penal Code Act addressing loopholes, in particular: protecting the vulnerabilities of the boy child; proportionality in sentencing; and, ensuring that sexual orientation is excluded as a protected human right. The ideal situation would be one where necessary amendment is made on existing legislation to also enumerate other sexual offences." - Anglican Archbishop Henry Orombi, who wants Uganda's "kill gays" bill rewritten to include bans on lesbianism and a "ban on the procurement of homosexual material and the promotion of homosexuality as a normal lifestyle."

Archbishop Of Canterbury "Profoundly Sorry" For Anti-Gay Speeches

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams opened the Church of England's annual meeting with an apology to the gay community over comments he has made in the wake of the church's split on the issue of gay clergy.

"The debate over the status and vocational possibilities of LGBT people in the Church is not helped by ignoring the existing facts, which include many regular worshippers of gay or lesbian orientation and many sacrificial and exemplary priests who share this orientation. There are ways of speaking about the question that seem to ignore these human realities or to undervalue them. I have been criticised for doing just this, and I am profoundly sorry for the carelessness that could give such an impression."

Williams cited the case of American Bishop Gene Robinson, whose 2003 ordination began the rift between Anglican traditionalists and those who advocate for gay and female clergy.

Thousands Of Anglican Priests Defect To Vatican Over Gay-Friendly Policies

Last month Pope Palpatine invited the world's Anglican priests to join the Catholic Church if they disagreed with new gay-friendly Anglican policies. This weekend the first avalanche of thousands of defecting priests was announced.

Over 4,000 Anglican priests all over the world, including married ones, are expected to join the Catholic Church, Bishop Matthias Ssekamanya announced on Friday. Ssekamanya, who doubles as the chancellor of Uganda Martyrs University, said this does not mean that the Catholic Church is removing the requirement for priests to remain unmarried. “We are not becoming soft on celibacy for Catholic priests. We shall also not tolerate homosexuals and polygamous marriages in the Catholic Church,” he added. He was officiating at the 15th graduation ceremony of the Nkozi-based university. Vatican officials announced that married Anglican priests would be allowed to remain in the priesthood on a case-by-case basis as they join the Roman Catholic fold.

The Vatican’s decision to allow Anglicans to keep some aspects of their liturgy had raised questions over whether the Catholic requirement for celibacy might change. The Vatican this month released rules and guidelines, known as the Apostolic Constitution, as part of efforts to make it easier for disillusioned, traditionalist Anglicans to cross over to the Roman Catholic Church. Under the Vatican’s initiative, Anglicans, turned off by their own church’s embrace of gay clerics, women priests and blessing of same-sex unions, can join new parishes, called ‘personal ordinariates’, that are headed by former Anglican prelates.

Anglican Church Predicts Sharia LawFor Parts Of Britain

Dr. Rowan Williams, head of communion for England's Anglican Church, says that it is "unavoidable" that Islamic Sharia law will be adopted in parts of the country and that a "reasonable accommodation" must be made over the issue.

"It seems unavoidable and, as a matter of fact, certain conditions of Sharia are already recognised in our society and under our law, so it is not as if we are bringing in an alien and rival system," said Dr Williams.

"There is a place for finding what would be a constructive accommodation with some aspects of Muslim law as we already do with aspects of other kinds of religious law.

"It would be quite wrong to say that we could ever license a system of law for some community which gave people no right of appeal, no way of exercising the rights that are guaranteed to them as citizens in general.

"But there are ways of looking at marital disputes, for example, which provide an alternative to the divorce courts as we understand them. In some cultural and religious settings they would seem more appropriate."

There are almost as many variants of Sharia law as there are Islamic sects, but a few of the laws in Mohammed's hit parade include a ban on all intoxicants, pork, tobacco, and pornography. Criminals are subject to amputations of hands or feet. In many places, women are not allowed to hold prominent jobs and are forbidden to work in government.

Homosexuality is punishable by death.

And here's where we resurrect the Bruce Bawer debate.....