This issue has not gone away

Just in case anyone of any influence or perceived merit (for I am, at best, an average dog-collar) reads this, I have a message for them.

The issues surrounding the ordination (let alone consecration) of practising homosexuals has most certainly not gone away. It seems that there are some who would have us believe that this is no longer the issue that it was and that the rapids have calmed into relatively smooth water with the odd ripple.

Can I most respectfully point out that this is most certainly not the case from where I find myself. Here I find members of some denominations challenging me and sadly finding themselves increasingly distanced from the Anglicans. I find others who are more liberal and don't think we've gone far enough, but to be honest, I have to assume that some of these would qualify for the 'barely Christian' label from the majority of other Christians in the area. Still, at least they make us look sound!

The reality is that another week has gone and I have seen nothing in print and I have heard nothing either. I read of a man who had been in a sexual relationship with a member of the opposite sex, the result of this was that his bishop removed his licence and ejected him from the priesthood. Right action in the face of obvious sin, but is the tide now turning such that heterosexual sin is acted against and all else is largely ignored?

Restraint is the word of the moment it seems. I always assumed it meant to withdraw from an action or activity on the grounds of being self-disciplined but now it bears little relation to that and doesn't even exist when the discipline is applied externally. As I see it, there is little or no visible restraint (and if this is restraint, what on earth would we have had instead?) and yet there are no voices warning of the impending doom.

Perhaps proverbs twenty-nine has some warrant for us here:
"Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law." (ESV)

Perhaps this is a call from our leaders to seek the Lord's face and to fore-tell and forth-tell?

The NLT doesn't help much here:
"When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful."

Again, the KJV, yields a valuable passage for many sermons. Sadly, it doesn offer much help to those who would lead our Church:
"Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he."

I leave you with a thought from Ezekiel chapter thirty-four:

"The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock.
You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them. ‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:
As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them. ‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice."

Looks like being a good shepherd is the only right, proper and safe choice - so where are the words of wisdom? Where are those who should be the flocks of the LORD? The wolf is in the pen and yet the shepherds are nowhere to be seen.

God help us!