{"id":17681,"date":"2019-05-03T09:51:30","date_gmt":"2019-05-03T14:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/?p=17681"},"modified":"2019-06-11T10:07:50","modified_gmt":"2019-06-11T15:07:50","slug":"bishop-explains-churchs-stance-on-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/bishop-explains-churchs-stance-on-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Bishop Explains Church\u2019s Stance on Abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The\ncontroversial subject of abortion, which has attracted debate locally and\ninternationally, was addressed by the Rt. Rev. Howard Gregory, Bishop of\nJamaica &amp; The Cayman Islands in his wide-ranging Charge to the Church and\nthe nation, delivered at the Opening Service of the Diocese\u2019s 149<sup>th<\/sup>\nSynod in Montego Bay recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He\nstated that, consistent with reflection in the Anglican Communion, the church\nforbids \u201cabortion as a means of birth control, family planning, sex selection\nor any reason of mere convenience.\u201d However, he noted that \u201cthe church allows\nspace for abortion only in cases of rape or incest, cases in which a mother\u2019s\nphysical or mental health is at risk, or cases involving foetal abnormalities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At\nthe same time, Bishop Gregory asserted that the church takes seriously the\ncrucial role which a woman plays in the decision-making process, and who must\nbe accorded due consideration and respect. He urged members of the Christian\ncommunity to engage in respectful dialogue on this matter, instead of adopting\nemotional positions at extreme poles, as had occurred with national politics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nDiocesan bemoaned the lack of compassion by many persons \u201cwho affirm the\nsanctity of life,\u201d in their response to generations of women who had their babies\nunder very challenging circumstances, only for their children to be given the\ndishonourable status of&nbsp; \u2018illegitimate\u2019 \u2013\na situation which was only corrected by state legislation. Ironically, he said,\nmany of these mothers make up a significant part of congregations in the\nDiocese; but, unlike Lazarus at the gate of the rich man, Dives, they are\nwithin the household.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bishop\nGregory also questioned the basis on which many persons who are uncompromising\nabout the sanctity of life with regard to abortion, are equally unyielding in\ntheir support for capital punishment; and he pointed to the perfect example of\ngrace and compassion demonstrated by Jesus in his encounters with persons such\nas the woman caught in adultery, and those he healed on the Sabbath. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nBishop concluded: \u201cSisters and brothers, grace is not just about a word spoken\nor a law invoked, but an attitude and vantage point from which we approach\nhuman beings wrestling with the fundamental and complicated issues of life.\u201d&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The controversial subject of abortion, which has attracted debate locally and internationally, was addressed by the Rt. Rev. Howard Gregory, Bishop of Jamaica &amp; The Cayman Islands in his wide-ranging Charge to the Church and the nation, delivered at the Opening Service of the Diocese\u2019s 149th Synod in Montego Bay recently. He stated that, consistent&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":17682,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","ctfw-has-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17681"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17683,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17681\/revisions\/17683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}