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CANADA: Anglican bishops mull same sex issue
This week's meeting is the first chance to talk about a report on fallout from the dispute.
The London Free Press
SASKATOON (11/1/2004)--Same-sex unions and the fallout from a recent church report on the subject will be the first order of business as the leader of the Anglican Church of Canada meets with bishops from across the country in Saskatoon this week. "I know the courts are discussing it, parliaments across the land are discussing it. But the church has never entertained that discussion at all," said Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, the church's Canadian primate. "Some people say we should, but we haven't."
An Anglican Church commission released a report last month urging Canadian dioceses to stop blessing same-sex relationships.
The Vancouver-area diocese of New Westminster set off a storm within the Canadian church by accepting a vote in 2002 to allow its churches to bless same-sex unions. The vote had passed three times.
The commission, headed by Irish Archbishop Robert Eames, said it regretted the church took these actions "without attaching sufficient importance to the interests of the wider communion."
It also stated "the Anglican Communion cannot again afford, in every sense, the crippling prospect of repeated worldwide inter-Anglican conflict such as that engendered by the current crisis."
For his part, Hutchison said the church has no plans to marry homosexuals.
"When same-gender partnerships decide to make their lives together to the exclusion of all others and they're faithful Christian people and they'd like their faith community to bless that, that's the questions we'll be discussing.
"The diocese of New Westminster has said, 'Yes, we'll bless these unions.' But they've never married anybody."
The dispute within the church over same-sex unions is similar to conflict that arose when women were first ordained in the 1970s, said Hutchison.
"There are people who try and say this is absolutely different, but I believe it's a very precise parallel," said Hutchison. "The difference is that . . . the decision was made in Canada by the whole church to allow the ordainment of women. And I think that's the issue here, the whole church hasn't come together and said it's all right."
The 121-page report by the Lambeth Commission on Communion calls for an examination of theology on homosexuality and the way the church's fractured dioceses around the world relate to each other to find common ground.
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