Canada keeps its ban on same-sex blessings: CEN 11.09.07 p 6. November 12, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Church of England Newspaper, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue.trackback
Canada’s House of Bishops has renewed its moratorium on same-sex blessings.
In its Oct 25-30 meeting in London, Ontario, its first since General Synod held in June that while same-sex blessings were a moral good the Church would not permit their use, the House of Bishops said there would be no policy change on gay blessings.
Clergy may celebrate a Eucharist and intercessory prayers with a same-sex couple, but they were not permitted to perform a same-sex wedding or blessing.
In a pastoral letter to the church, the bishops said they had “heard reports from several bishops who spoke of the effects of General Synod’s resolutions on same-sex blessings and these reflections ranged from parts of the country where this issue is paramount in the life of the church to others areas where it is only a very small part of the church’s life or scarcely considered at all.”
The Bishops of Montreal and Ottawa told the meeting they had not yet decided how to respond to the requests by their synods to authorize gay blessings. The Bishop of New Westminster noted that the eight parishes whom had requested his permission to celebrate gay-blessings would be allowed to continue, he would not authorize further requests from other parishes.
In private session, some bishops voiced concerns over retired Bishop Don Harvey of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, saying his support for embattled traditionalists was undermining their authority.
The Anglican Journal reported that Bishop Michael Ingham of New Westminster said that “it is one thing to have traditional views; that’s all right, but not to undermine lawful authority put in place by synodical action. There was a consensus in the house to ask the primate and metropolitans to deal with the situation.”
The bishops also gave a mixed response to the US House of Bishops’ New Orleans statement after meeting in small groups. Bishop George Bruce of Ontario said his group believed the US had gone a long way towards responding to the Primates, but was alarmed by the growing split within the Communion.
Bishop Ron Ferris of Algoma said his group heard “double speak” from the American bishops, and saw no evidence of substantive compliance.
Archbishop Fred Hiltz noted the Council of General Synod, the church’s governing body between meetings of General Synod, would take up the topic at their Nov 16-18 meeting and then forward Canada’s view to Dr. Rowan Williams.
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