Ecumenism
Same-sex "blessings" cause Anglican rift
By Insight Staff

Hardcopy Issue Date: September 2002
Online Publication Date: Sep 24, 2002, 16:57

Vancouver, B.C.- On June 15, 2002, the governing synod of the 26,000 Anglican faithful in the diocese of New Westminster, B.C., voted 63% to 37% in favour of blessing homosexual unions in a church service. The vote received the approval of diocesan bishop Michael Ingham, a well-known dissenter from Christian doctrinal tradition. It brings to a head a long simmering dispute among Anglicans worldwide. This discovery began in the late nineteen-seventies as the homosexual drive for acceptance throughout society gathered strength in Western countries.

In Australia, New Zealand, Canada, United States and Great Britain, Anglican "gay" activists looked for international acceptance of same-sex marriages and the homosexual lifestyle at the worldwide Anglican Lambeth Conference held in 1998. They were shocked when the African and Asian delegates-who greatly outnumber the bishops from European stock-angrily and decisively defeated the proposals 526-60. Thereupon the Western bishops indicated they would go it alone. In many places same-sex "blessings" have become the custom, be it unofficially. With the Vancouver move, Anglicans are facing sacramental church approval of sodomy.

Bishop Ingham's Vancouver diocese has discussed the issue for at least four years. Two previous votes, the last in 2001, with 56% in favour, were deemed to have too narrow a margin for the motion to be implemented. Ingham himself is fully behind the idea of "blessing" same-sex marriages. At the 2001 Canadian National General Synod, he apologized for the Anglican "attitude to gays and lesbians," calling for their "full inclusion in the Body of Christ" (Interim, Feb. 2002).

Ingham is conscious however, that there is a sizeable minority in his diocese that opposes the overthrow of Scripture and tradition. At the Vancouver Synod, he mentioned "protection of conscience" for them, and such a clause was in fact included in the June 15 meeting. However, a group of about 80 opponents representing perhaps 25% of church members, saw through this tactic of destroying Christian doctrine through compromise, and walked out of the meeting. One minister forecast that some parishes would leave the Anglican communion altogether, while another said they would leave only the synod, pending a ruling on the issue by the National House of Bishops. This body-indicating a weakening of resistance-declared in 1997, that they were "not ready" to endorse same-sex unions; Ingham abstained on that vote.

Among Canadian Anglican bishops, one-third led by Bishop Ronald Ferris of Algoma, ON, have registered their objections, though some of the objections seem to be of a technical kind only, such as whether an individual diocese has the right to proceed without the concurrence of the others. On the other hand, Archbishop Terence Finlay of Toronto, who presides over the largest diocese in Canada with 220 parishes and 90,000 faithful, supports the "blessings" and "personally favours a local option to allow parishes to decide. . .to bless unions under certain conditions." Also on side is Archbishop Michael Peers, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, who takes a similar position claiming that the diocese of New Westminster has acted "responsibly" in the process employed and in the provision of a conscience clause for parishes in disagreement.

Within the international Anglican communion, the retiring Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, has intimated that he is "saddened" by the B.C., decision because he sees it as threatening the unity of the worldwide Anglican Church. Appealing to conservative Anglicans not to reject their bishop (the synod had included a motion for a visiting bishop to attend to the pastoral needs of "dissenting" parishes), Dr. Carey urged them to try for some accommodation. After proposing this compromise, he then noted, I'll stand firmly by the resolution passed at the 1998 Lambeth Conference."

Comment:
It is clear that Anglicans in the West are succumbing to homosexual propaganda. The decisive moment came eleven years ago when the House of Bishops of the Church of England accepted the 1991 Issues in Human Sexuality. This permitted homosexual relationships among lay people but not clergy. It created an untenable double standard which is now being swept away in favour of sodomy for eveyone including the clergy.

The "blessings" will have no legal effect nor, as one letter writer observed, will they be from Almighty God. It is to be hoped that Catholics will reach out to those parishes (in Vancouver, some Chinese ones), whose members reject this latest abomination.