New Westminster Anglicans to continue blessing gay unions

Canada's first Anglican diocese to bless gay unions has withdrawn its request to be exempt from the national church's rules forbidding priests from performing same-sex ceremonies.

For the time being, however, it's "status quo," bishop Michael Ingham said Monday of the situation for B.C.'s New Westminster diocese.

Anglican churches in the diocesewill keep sanctifying civil unions for same-gender couples in committed relationships. But "I have to go back to Vancouver and think about what it means to the diocese," Ingham said, adding he would listen to church community members and then make a statement "in a few weeks."

In a move that surprised church delegates heading into the general synod on Monday, Ingham backed off from asking the national church to allow the New Westminster diocese to let its priests continue blessing same-sex unions.

Following the weekend vote in Winnipeg, which took that option away, Ingham said his delegates would ask the general synod on Monday to accept "a resolution asking to grandfather us in, so we can continue to do what we're doing."

Delegates at the national meeting arrived on Monday expecting an impassioned political and theological debate over whether New Westminster would be allowed to continue blessing gay unions as it has done since 2003.

But Ingham withdrew the resolution, saying it was beginning to take up too much time in the general synod when the synod could be addressing other business. Ingham also said he wanted to consult more with his colleagues about what direction to take next with the diocese.

Speculation that diocese is stalling

Some opponents of blessing same-sex unions speculated that Ingham's decision to withdraw the request for official sanction for his diocese was a stall tactic.

Rev. Dawn MacDonald, who heads a group of former gay and lesbian parishioners, is against the practice of same-sex blessings. She said Ingham may have withdrawn the motion because he knew it wouldn't pass, in which case, New Westminster would have had to stop sanctifying same-sex unions immediately.

"Maybe the bishop feared that if the house of bishops wouldn't support him, if it's defeated, they can't carry on," she said, accusing the diocese of "using the ambiguity" surrounding the motion to continue the practice.

Church members on both sides of the debate acknowledge they are still somewhat confused about the outcome of Sunday's vote. The church agreed in a motion earlier on Sunday that blessing the unions was not in conflict with core doctrine, but then narrowly voted in a later motion that even so, priests should not be allowed to bless the unions. Delegates complained the two conflicting motions sent mixed messages.

'I feel very betrayed'

"We've said we can do this and bishops say we won't. I don't understand and I feel very betrayed," said Bonnie Crawford-Bewley, who has been in a committed relationship with her same-sex partner for 17 years.

"Our family is blessed by God every day and we know that and our daughter knows that. I'm sorry my church doesn't know that."

The couple has not had a civil marriage ceremony yet because they want to be married in the church by Crawford-Bewley's father, a priest in Ottawa.

The general synod's weekend vote forbids individual dioceses from giving priests the option to perform same-sex ceremonies. Supporters of the motion argued that New Westminster should not be exempt, even though it has been blessing gay couples in civil ceremonies for years.

The New Westminster diocese developed a rite for same-gendered blessings in 2002, after voting at three diocesan synods to approve the blessings.

The majority of the world's Anglicans, particularly in Africa and Asia, believe gay relationships violate Scripture, while more liberal Anglicans support the acceptance of same-sex couples based on their interpretation of the Bible's teachings of equality and social justice.