Canadian diocese to go ahead with gay blessings: CEN 3.13.09 p 5.

The Rt. Rev. Michael Bird, Bishop of Niagara

The Bishop of Niagara has informed the Archbishop of Canterbury that his south central Ontario diocese will begin blessing same-sex unions.

Writing in the March issue of his diocesan newspaper, the Rt. Rev. Michael Bird said that in January he met with Dr. Rowan Williams at Lambeth Palace to brief the archbishop on the work that diocese had undertaken on creating sacramental rites for the blessing of same-sex unions and that it was his intention to authorize gay blessings.

Bishop Bird wrote that he had related Niagara’s “experience of the incredible contribution that gay and lesbian people have made and continue to make in every aspect of our church’s life and witness, and expressed the overwhelming desire on the part of two synods to move forward with the blessings of committed same-sex relationships for couples who have been civilly married.”

He wrote that he told Dr. Williams the diocese’s call to “prophetic justice-making has made us even more determined to become a more open and inclusive church” and break the Canadian House of Bishops and Lambeth moratorium on the introduction of gay blessings.

On Nov 8, Bishop Bird told his diocesan synod that he intended to ask “for a rite to be developed for the blessing of same-sex couples who have been civilly married, along with a process to enable these blessings to take place that will at the same time honour the diversity of tradition and theology that exists across Niagara.”

At its 2007 meeting, by a vote of 239-53 the Niagara synod asked the bishop to allow those clergy “whose conscience permits” to bless gay marriages. However, in Oct 2008 the Canadian House of Bishops called for a stay of liturgical experimentation for gay weddings. Canada’s General Synod would take up the issue in 2010, the bishops said.

Dr. Williams’ response was less then fulsome. Bishop Bird wrote the archbishop had thanked him “for such a full and detailed report and he indicated how important this opportunity was for him to hear from me personally.”

The March edition of the Diocese of Ottawa’s newspaper Crosstalk also announced plans for blessing same-sex unions. The Bishop of Ottawa, the Rt. Rev. John Chapman, announced that a committee had been formed to address the question of same-sex blessings.

If the committee reports back favourably on the innovation “in the spirit of experiential discernment,” he said he planned on permitting St. John the Evangelist Church in Ottawa to begin the blessings. However, “this is as far as I am prepared to move on the matter until General Synod 2010,” he wrote.

The Rev. Ephraim Radner, Dean of Wycliffe College in Toronto, told the National Post the decisions to authorize the blessings was “provocative and hostile.”

A member of the Anglican Covenant Design Group, Dr. Radner said these actions served to make “much worse by ratcheting up the antagonisms,” further dividing the church.