CANADA: ORTHODOX ANGLICANS CALL FOR GREATER “CLARITY AND HONESTY” IN SAME-SEX DEBATE

Essentials Canada says motion will be a “plain endorsement” of same-sex blessings

May 5, 2004

TORONTO, CANADA

Canada’s largest orthodox Anglican coalition is calling on church leaders to embrace “clarity and honesty” in the debate at the church’s General Synod at the end of May regarding the blessing of same-sex unions.

In a written statement, the governing council of Anglican Essentials Canada, a coalition of the nation’s three main orthodox groups, says it believes that Anglican Church officials are trying to downplay the meaning and importance of a controversial motion surrounding the blessing of same-sex unions.

“Our greatest concern lies with statements from our national church claiming that passage of this motion does not indicate an endorsement of the blessing of same-sex unions,” the statement reads.

The same-sex motion asks the governing body of the Anglican Church of Canada to state that individual dioceses have the power to create marriage-like blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples.

“In our view… General Synod can only affirm that which it endorses…. Accordingly, we expect Canadian Anglicans will rightly see passage of this motion as a plain endorsement of same-sex blessings.… [T]his is primarily a question of Christian ethics and morals. Efforts to reframe the issue as one of institutional jurisdiction are at best unhelpful, and could serve to deepen the disenfranchisement many Anglicans experience with their national church.”

We call upon our national leaders to embrace a spirit of candor and transparency surrounding this issue and the debate, in plain and genuine language, adding that church leaders needed to acknowledge the “obvious and well-documented impact” on the future of the national church and the 77-million-strong Anglican Communion.

The worldwide Anglican Communion has been in turmoil since June 2002, when the governing body of the Vancouver-based Diocese of New Westminster voted by a 62-percent majority to become the first in the world to develop a blessing ceremony for same-sex unions. In August 2003, the U.S. branch of the church narrowly approved the ordination of an openly gay man as Bishop. Both decisions repudiated a 1998 resolution of all 700 bishops in the communion, who voted by a nine-to-one majority against same-sex blessing or ordinations.

In October 2003, the world’s 38 Anglican national leaders said the decision in New Westminster was contributing to a “tear the fabric of our communion at its deepest level.”

The Canadian and U.S. churches jointly represent about 4 percent of the worldwide communion.

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Statement from The Essentials Council of the Anglican Church of Canada

May 5, 2004

[Full statement matches prior excerpt.]

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