Crunch Time for Canada: CEN 6.22.07 p 6 June 21, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Church of England Newspaper, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue, Windsor Report.trackback
The place of the Anglican Church of Canada within the Anglican Communion will be settled this week as the Church gives its response to the Windsor Report at its 38th triennial General Synod in Winnipeg. Delegates will debate regularizing blessings of same-sex unions and will elect a successor to Archbishop Andrew Hutchison at the June 19-25 gathering.
Clergy and lay delegates and bishops from the Church’s 30 dioceses and districts will kick open Synod with a Eucharist at Winnipeg’s St. John’s Cathedral on the evening of June 19 and begin the legislative session on June 20, meeting in the ballroom of the Marlborough Hotel.
Synod will open with the election of officers and consideration of various reports from the church’s boards and committees. On June 22 the lay and clergy members will elect a new Primate from among four candidates chosen by the House of Bishops.
Nominated at the April 19 House of Bishops meting, Bishops George Bruce of Ontario, Fred Hiltz of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, Bruce Howe of Huron and Victoria Matthews of Edmonton, represent the liberal, conservative and corporatist wings of the Canadian church.
On June 23 Synod will turn to the most contentious issue before, them and discuss blessings of same-sex unions. Lobbying by interest groups to influence the outcome of the voting has been strong, and in May the House of Bishops hinted they would block attempts to regularize same-sex blessings, asking for further study of the issue.
In 2005 the Canadian government approved gay civil marriages, while the Diocese of New Westminster has permitted blessing of same-sex unions for several years. However, the national Church has so far blocked attempts to solemnize gay unions.
Resolutions before the Synod seek to permit dioceses to adopt a “local option”, allowing each to set a policy on blessing same-sex unions, while a second resolution calls for the church to begin a national discussion about “equal” marriage.
The Canadian Church was facing its hour of decision, the Rev. Linda Fisher Privitera, chaplain to Integrity Ottawa, said. “Pastoral care of the GLBT believing community is at a crisis point when the Church itself is wounding us by questioning our faith and by refusing to bless our good loves. It is hypocritical for the Church to affirm our relationships as holy and life-giving, as the General Synod did three years ago, and still refuse to live into the actions implied by such affirmation.”
The conservative Anglican Essentials Coalition agreed the choice facing the Canadian Church was stark. If motions approving same-sex blessings were approved, “it will be understood that the Anglican Church of Canada has chosen to ‘walk apart’ from Canterbury and the international Communion.”
Last month the bishops of the province of Rupert’s Land asked the issue of same-sex blessings be referred to the Primate’s Theological Commission. The bishops of Athabasca, Arctic, Brandon, Calgary, Edmonton, Keewatin, Qu’Appelle, Rupert’s Land, Saskatchewan, and Saskatoon wrote it was not feasible for the delegates to “be in a position to determine whether the blessing of same-sex unions is scripturally sound and theologically consistent with core doctrine.”
Permitting same-sex blessings without laying a proper theological foundation was improper, they argued. “While there has been a huge amount published on these matters from both sides of the question, there is no one Canadian Anglican position paper that we as a church own and can use to help others engaging this question,” wrote the bishops. “If the blessing of same-sex unions is consistent with core doctrine and right, then it is incumbent upon us to help educate Anglicans, and other Christians, in Canada and around the world.”
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