Toronto gay blessing guidelines released: The Church of England Newspaper, Nov 12, 2010 p 8.

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

The Diocese of Toronto’s same-sex blessings guidelines published last week will not violate the Anglican Communion’s moratorium on same-sex blessings, a letter from the diocese’s five bishops to their clergy claims. While the ceremony will acknowledge God’s blessings upon the couple, the Toronto rite will impart no legal or ecclesial recognition of the same-sex couple’s relationship.

The four page document, dated Oct 28 and mailed to the diocesan clergy last week, states that Toronto Archbishop Colin Johnson will licence a small number of parishes to perform the “Blessing of Same Gender Commitments” rite.

The bishops said they sought to find a way to honour the communion’s ban on public rites for same-sex blessings as well as the Canadian Church’s desire to extend pastoral generosity to same-sex couples.  The new rites seek to accommodate those in “stable committed same gender relationships” seeking the church’s support for their relationship and those in the diocese who view such a relationship as sinful.

“The diversity of our diocesan community demonstrates that we are called to witness to the faith in a variety of ways, and though such witness is rooted in differing interpretations and understanding of holy scripture and the tradition, they are recognizably Anglican,” the guidelines state.

However, the rites may not include an “exchange of consents” and a “declaration of union.”  A civil same-sex marriage may not be conducted within the context of the service also.  The rite will not be recorded as in the parish marriage register and no “nuptial blessing” may be offered to the couple.

The bishops have permitted a “statement of covenant or commitment” in the ceremony, a blessing of the “persons in their commitment” and a “symbolic expression” of the commitment—however, symbols such as wedding rings or anything that could be “understood as symbolising marriage” are forbidden.

Clergy cannot be compelled to perform the ceremony, but are asked to refer inquirers to their bishop if parishioners wish such a blessing which the clergy cannot provide.

The Anglican Church of Canada’s General Synod in 2004 voted to defer a decision of same-sex blessings until 2007, but affirmed the “integrity and sanctity of committed adult same-sex relationships”.  The 2007 General Synod rejected a resolution permitting bishops to authorise rites for the blessing of same-sex unions and in 2010 it deferred action once more in favor of continued “conversation.”

The 2010 General Synod did “acknowledge diverse pastoral practices as dioceses respond to their own missional contexts.”

Following the synod Archbishop Fred Hiltz informed the Anglican Consultative Council the Canadian church was in compliance with the moratorium as the national church had not adopted gay blessings, even though New Westminster began offering the blessings in 2002, and the dioceses of Huron, Ottawa, Montreal, and Niagara have moved forward with the innovation.  On Nov 6, 2010 the Synod of the Diocese of Saskatoon passed by a margin of two votes a resolution calling upon its bishop to authorise same-sex blessings.

In 2009 Toronto announced its plans for gay blessings, but said it would approve pastoral but not sacramental rites for blessings.

In an open letter to the Toronto bishops, the Dean of Wycliffe College in Toronto, the Rev. Ephraim Radner said the distinction drawn was too fine.  “It is hard to escape the fact that the process you have now set in motion-one that involves public proposals, discussions, synodical actions, and all dealing with a way of ordering a particular ‘pastoral response’ that involves episcopal oversight and particular permissions, following directives that involve the nature of prayers – cannot avoid being seen as one of ecclesial ‘authorization’ of liturgical matters surrounding same-sex unions,” he said.

While the bishops may have believed they were only giving a structure to a an arrangement for “private prayers”, the “very process you are following” calls for “formal, episcopal, diocesan, public, liturgical prayers of blessing,” Dr. Radner said.

It would be “very difficult indeed to make the case and persuade others” that what Toronto had now done violated the Lambeth Conference moratorium and had in opposition to the “concerns of many Anglicans around the world,” he concluded.