By Angela Johnston
Some Centretown Anglicans are frustrated by the failure of their church to resolve the controversial issue of same-sex unions that is threatening to split the world-wide Anglican Communion.
“Do you leave, or do you stay and fight for change?” asks Gillian Wallace, a parishioner at St. John the Evangelist Church on Elgin Street. She says she is considering leaving her church in protest over the lack of progress on the same-sex blessings crisis. Anglican leaders met in Northern Ireland in late February to discuss the issue.
Same-sex unions have been a source of controversy in the world-wide Anglican church for years but the controversy recently intensified when the liberal attitudes of the American and Canadian churches threatened a schism. The North American churches have generally accepted same-sex blessings, seen as one step below marriage.
To head that off, world-wide clergy asked the North American churches to voluntarily withdraw from the Anglican Consultative Council— seen as an instrument of unity for the communion—while the issue is being studied some more. The Canadian church will vote on this request in June.
Kevin Flynn, director of the Anglican studies program at St. Paul University, says Canadian Anglicans also are still studying implications of same-sex blessings before the church takes an official position. “Studying the matter” is often raised as a compromise between the two camps.
But the compromises haven’t satisfied local Anglicans on either side of the fence.
Ron Chaplin, convener of the Diocesan Task Group on Gays and Lesbians in Ottawa, says the Anglican church’s crisis over same-sex issues has nothing to do with homosexuality. He says the debate is part of a growing neo-conservative movement of North American bishops vying for church power.
He says the international furor over same-sex blessings is one way these disgruntled conservative clergy are working to reverse liberal decisions in the church; other examples include issues such as the ordination of women, use of the old prayer book and divorce.
Rev. Frank Kirby, rector of the Church of St. Barnabas on James Street, says, “I personally don’t agree with the sanctity of same-sex marriage.”
He says he thought the Canadian Synod — a committee of Anglican clergy and laypeople — should respect world-wide communion opinion: “I feel that our General Synod jumped the gun.”
While the Canadian Synod has not officially endorsed same-sex blessings, it affirmed the “sanctity” of same-sex relationships last year, which is very similar to the controversial blessings.
Flynn says the recent international conference would factor into Canadian thinking: “They’re basically saying, ‘cease and desist,’” of the conservative communion over same-sex blessings.
Flynn noted that Canada’s head Archbishop, Andrew Hutchison, supports same-sex blessings, but says there is a need to preserve world-wide church unity. He says parishioners may not feel the immediate effects of belonging to a global communion, but its existence is important in a larger context.
“The sense of being cut off from a family, I think, would be a great loss and would be a diminution of people’s sense of being part of something historic,” Flynn says about the divide in the church.
Wallace, however, disagrees.
“Church unity means nothing … divorce is overdue.”
But she says she hopes the issue can be resolved through dialogue and not division.