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Anglican Communion Officer Urges Caution To Canadians

ANGLICAN COMMUNION OFFICER URGES CAUTION TO CANADIANS

By David W. Virtue

ST. CATHERINES, ON (5-29-2004)--An envoy from the Anglican Communion office in London warned that any decision to bless same-sex unions by the Canadian Anglican Church could have far reaching implications for the unity of the whole Anglican Communion.

The Rev. Canon Gregory Cameron, Director of Ecumenical Affairs &
Studies of the London-based Anglican Communion Office, told more than 300 delegates to the 37th Canadian Anglican Synod that to proceed might be a price worth paying, "if you conclude that this is where Christ leads."

Cameron is thought to reflect the mind of the Archbishop of Canterbury,
Dr. Rowan Williams, and said, "I would be unfaithful to the task I have
been set if I did not say that the implications of your decision for
the unity of the Anglican Communion, perhaps even its very survival in
its current form, are just about as serious as it could get."

"If you say 'no' to the motions before you, you will be in danger of
letting down the thousands of gay people in your midst, who are your
Canadian family, as well as all those others who are looking towards
the Anglican Church of Canada to set a new standard of dealing with
this issue."

"But if you say 'yes', the work of the Lambeth Commission becomes
horribly complicated, because we will be told that the Anglican Church
of Canada refuses to hear the voice, and to heed the concerns of your
fellow Anglicans in the growing provinces of the Global South, who are
your international family. The reaction to such a decision, without
very careful explanation and liaison by the Church of Canada, is likely
to be on a par with that currently being experienced by your neighbors
to the South."

Cameron said that "fairly or unfairly, the Anglican and ecumenical
worlds are likely to react to your decisions on whether they perceive
you to support or to reject the possibility of public rites of
blessings of same sex unions as elements of your lived-out faith."

"This week, the eyes of all other provinces turn to you, to watch how
you decide."

END

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