Canada diocese backs gay blessing

By Robert Pigott
Religious affairs correspondent, BBC News
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7044569.stm

A diocese of the Anglican Church in Canada has voted for the blessing of same-sex relationships in church.

The vote, by a wide majority, sets back efforts to stem the disintegration of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The Ottawa diocese was the first in Canada to consider the issue of gay blessing since June.

Then the governing body of the Canadian church decided to refuse dioceses the authority to offer such blessings for the sake of preserving church unity.

Even before the American Anglican church controversially ordained an openly gay bishop in 2003, a Canadian diocese, Vancouver, had sparked a crisis in the Communion by allowing church blessings for homosexual couples.

Since then the Communion has begun painfully to split apart, as traditionalists, who believe active homosexuality to be sinful, have tried to expel liberal churches.

Now the Ottawa diocese has voted to approve same-sex blessings, by 177 to 97 votes.

The decision is not binding, but it is further evidence that the liberal North American churches will not fundamentally change their approach to homosexuality, even if that were necessary to keep the Communion intact.

Synod Backs Gay Rights
Anglican church leaders in Ottawa vote to allow clergy to bless same-sex marriage, inflaming debate

Oct 14, 2007 04:30 AM
Stuart Laidlaw
Faith and Ethics Reporter
www.thestar.com/News/article/266657

The Ottawa diocese of the Anglican Church of Canada yesterday approved same-sex marriage blessings in a move sure to inflame a debate over gay rights that has pushed the communion to the brink of schism.

By a margin of 177 to 97, delegates to the diocese's annual synod in Cornwall approved a motion asking the local bishop to allow clergy "whose conscience permits" to bless same-sex unions.

Conservative church leaders immediately condemned the move.

"It goes to the very opposite direction to what the international church is calling for," retired Newfoundland bishop Donald Harvey, moderator of the Anglican Network in Canada, told the Star.

The worldwide Anglican Communion has been bitterly divided on the issue of same-sex marriage blessings since the appointment of the openly gay Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire in 2004.

The majority of Anglicans worldwide belong to conservative churches in developing countries, which have been pushing for a more orthodox approach to policy.

Harvey said yesterday's vote makes it more likely the Anglican Network will go ahead with a plan to join forces with several conservative U.S. Anglican groups trying to set up a new church along orthodox theological lines. The Anglican Network meets next month in Burlington to discuss the plan.

"This is a far deeper dispute than same-sex blessings," Harvey said.

Ron Chaplin, who introduced the motion at yesterday's vote, said he hopes the move does not inflame the debate around the issue.

"We in Canada and the United States need to do a better job of explaining what we are doing and why we are doing it," said Chaplin, people's warden at Ottawa's St. John the Evangelist Church.

At a press conference after the vote, Ottawa Bishop John Chapman said the final decision on whether to bless same-sex marriages rests with him. Chapman said he plans to consult with other bishops across Canada and internationally before deciding what to do.

The Ottawa diocese covers most of eastern Ontario and western Quebec, and has 142 congregations.

The Montreal diocese is scheduled to vote on a motion similar to Ottawa's next weekend. The actions of both dioceses will then be discussed at a meeting of the Canadian House of Bishops later this month in London, Ont.

Chaplin said he expects to see several dioceses across the country introduce similar motions at their annual synods over the coming year, and he expects most to pass.

Such votes, however, fly in the face of a vote at the national church's synod last June, where delegates voted down a plan to let local churches decide for themselves whether to bless same-sex marriages, Harvey said.

Despite that vote, he said, the Canadian church is clearly moving toward blessing same-sex marriages.

"Bit by bit, we're going to end up having it without any of us knowing how it came about," he said. "By the time of the next national synod, it will be a fait accompli."