Tobias Stanislas Haller – författare

Resource for clergy to give/use with couples seeking to be wed in an Episcopal ChurchMany couples come to an Episcopal Church seeking a place to hold their wedding ceremony because they love the setting in our beautiful churches. Others seek to be married in the Episcopal Church because their parents are members and/or it was the church of their childhood but have lapsed in attendance. While marriage is a tradition for many rooted in the religious tradition, the church continues to be an agent of the state in performing the legal components. And some couples are deeply connected to their parish family and seek a marriage grounded in the rites of the church. Intended as an accessible resource, clergy can give this book to couples and use as a preparation tool in planning “The Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage” in the Episcopal Church. This book will satisfy the request clergy often receive from individuals (as well as newcomers, unmarried parents, same gender couples, those seeking remarriage) who desire to be married but don’t know what is involved from an Episcopal perspective. It includes essays, an outline and explanation of the marriage service, and how couples can live out the promises they make to one another.

Explores how we can use our bodies sexually and holistically in contemporary culture. What About Sex? provides a moral compass to navigate the changing landscape of sex and sexuality. Dealing with the Bible, evolving traditions and customs, and the findings of science and psychology, Haller endeavors to inform and guide rather than lay down the law. This book is not about what goes where or who does what to whom, but about what it means to be an embodied person with responsibilities both to oneself and others.

Reasonable and Holy addresses the conflict over homosexuality within the Anglican tradition, demonstrating that the church is able to provide for and support faithful and loving relationships between persons of the same sex, not as a departure from that tradition, but as a reasonable extension of it. It offers a carefully argued, but accessible means of engagement with Scripture, the Jewish and Christian traditions, and the use of reason in dealing with the experience and lives of fellow-Christians. Unlike most reflections on the topic of homosexuality, Reasonable and Holy examines same-sex relationships through the lens of the traditional teaching on the “ends” or “goods” of marriage: procreation, union, the upbuilding of society, the symbolic representation of Christ and the Church, and the now often unmentioned “remedy for fornication.” Throughout, it responds to objections based on reason, tradition and Scripture. Based on a series of popular blog posts, it includes a number of independent, but related resources in the form of side-bars and single-page expansions of particular themes, suitable for reproduction as handouts.