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Canadian Anglican Bishops Deny Schism - No Moratorium on Same Sex Blessings
WINDSOR, May 2, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Anglican Bishops of Canada issued a statement Wednesday saying that they would not be placing a moratorium on same-sex blessings. The bishops' statement says, "On the matter of a moratorium on the authorization of public rites for the blessing of same sex unions, we commit ourselves neither to encourage nor to initiate the use of such rites."
In February at a meeting in Ireland, Anglican bishops from around the world informed the Episcopal Church of the US (ECUSA) and the Anglican Church of Canada that they must stop their support of sexual immorality or withdraw from association with historic Anglicanism. The response of the Canadian bishops yesterday, however, refused to acknowledge that there was a serious rift and continued to 'affirm' their membership in the worldwide Anglican Communion. The bishops said that any decision to impose a moratorium, which in the meeting in Ireland was the minimum acceptable condition for the Canadians remaining in the Anglican Communion, would be put off to the National General Synod in 2007.
The Canadian bishops also announced that they would not honour the request that they voluntarily refrain from sending delegates to the upcoming Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Nottingham in June 2005. Their delegation will "set out the thinking behind the recent actions of their Provinces, including the diversity of views on the matter of the blessing of same sex unions."
Peter Akinola, the metropolitan Archbishop of Nigeria who was instrumental in the decisions in Ireland, has had some stern words for this kind of obstinacy. In October, 2004, Akinola wrote in a statement on the Windsor Report, the document released by an Anglican Council that called for a moratorium on blessing homosexual unions and ordaining gay bishops, that Christians who remain faithful to the ancient moral teachings of Christianity have been persecuted by "a small, economically privileged group" who have subverted the Christian faith and imposed "their new and false doctrine on the wider community of faithful believers."
"The Episcopal Church and Diocese of New Westminster are already walking alone on this and if they do not repent and return to the fold, they will find that they are all alone. They will have broken the Anglican Communion." On April 7, Akinola announced the establishment of the Convocation of Anglican Nigerian Churches in America which will "provide safe harbour for those who can no longer find their spiritual home in those (ECUSA and Canadian Anglican) churches."
In related news, the election of the former Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger has given new impetus to traditional Anglicans who hope for the establishment of an Anglican rite that would be in communion with the Catholic Church. Archbishop John Hepworth, head of the Traditional Anglican Communion, (TAC) has expressed the hope that the election of Pope Benedict XVI will enable his group to rejoin the Roman Catholic Church from which the Anglicans broke in the 16th century.
The group broke away when the mainstream Anglican Church broke with 2000 years of Christian tradition and began ordaining women to their priesthood. Archbishop Hepworth said that he had met with Ratzinger to discuss the possibility of a "full and organic unity" between the two churches.
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