WASHINGTON: Canadian gay marriage vote blow to U.S. Anglicans

by Tim Harper
WASHINGTON BUREAU
The Star
http://www.thestar.com/article/229387
June 26, 2007

WASHINGTON–Canadian Anglicans further isolated the U.S. wing of the church with their narrow weekend vote against allowing church blessing of same-sex unions.

But those within the U.S. branch of Anglicanism - known here as the Episcopal Church - pointed to the slim margin of the Canadian vote as a sign that the two churches are not that far apart.

"Naturally I'm disappointed," said Rev. Susan Russell, the California-based president of the U.S. branch of Integrity, which advocates on behalf of gays and lesbians in the Episcopal Church.

"The fallout will not only be for the faithful gays and lesbians in the United States, but all ministries of the church because it will only further drag out this issue to the detriment of larger questions which should be dealt with."

In Winnipeg, Canada's Anglican bishops voted 21 to 19 against a resolution to allow their churches to conduct blessing ceremonies for gay couples. The Anglican laity and clergy voted strongly in favour of the resolution. A separate resolution, that blessings of gay unions are "not in conflict with the core doctrine" of the church, passed.

Gays and lesbians in the Episcopal Church had looked to the Canadian synod as an ally that could buttress their case in this country.

Instead, the U.S. church, which has not forbidden its clergy from blessing same-sex couples married in civil ceremonies, is left with a slightly more liberal position than Canadian Anglicans. The Episcopal Church has also consecrated the church's first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

The U.S. moves have split the 77-million-member global Anglican Communion. Some conservative Anglican leaders have set a Sept. 30 deadline for the American church to pledge not to authorize official prayers for same-sex couples or consecrate another gay bishop. If not, they want the U.S. branch expelled from the communion.

"The action of the Canadian Anglican Church will further isolate the leadership of the U.S. Episcopal Church within the worldwide Anglican communion," said John Green, senior fellow in religion and American politics at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

"This is likely to make it more difficult to reach some kind of accommodation between the U.S. church and the rest of the Anglican communion."

Some senior church members, speaking on background, acknowledged there will be anger in the U.S. church over what is seen as Canadian timidity, but said Americans have to realize the Canadian bishops need to be attuned to the church's global views.

"Some American bishops sitting on the fence over this issue will now be given cover to pull back on the question," one church member said.

"We would be fooling ourselves if we didn't believe the Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican community was not watching what happened in Canada," said Rev. Ian Douglas, a professor at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass.

"No church in the Anglican community has explicitly authorized the blessing of same-sex couple and now with Canada saying 'no,' the matter has become clearer."

Russell said she still sees Canada as an ally and said the vote of the laity and clergy in Winnipeg showed that it would not cave to "blackmail" from Anglican leaders in Africa and Latin America threatening to expel the Americans from the global communion.

"I would have been happier if the Canadian church had moved forward," she said, "but I don't see this as evidence that it has moved back."

END