From the wires: While the Anglican Communion worldwide contemplates the U.S. House of Bishops response on the matter of, among other things, same-sex blessings, one Anglican synod in Canada—Ottawa—is tackling the issue head-on next week at their annual meeting.
The synod of the Anglican Church of Canada’s Ottawa diocese will take up the issue of blessings for same-sex relationships when it meets Oct. 12-13.
Delegates to the regularly scheduled meeting of the synod, the diocese’s governing body, are to vote on a motion urging them to request that their bishop grant permission for clergy to bless such unions.
The motion was put forward by Ron Chaplin, a member of the diocese’s branch of Integrity, a support group for gay Anglicans, and Canon Garth Bulmer, rector of St. John the Evangelist, according to the Anglican Journal on its website www.anglicanjournal.com.
It reads: “Be it resolved that this synod requests that the bishop grant permission for clergy, whose conscience permits, to bless duly solemnized and registered civil marriages between same-sex couples, where one party is baptized; and that he authorizes an appropriate rite and guidelines for its use in supportive parishes.”
The Ottawa diocese is the first to consider the matter since the triennial General Synod, the church’s national governing body, agreed in June that same-sex blessings are “not in conflict” with core church doctrine.
The synod, however, declined by a slim margin to affirm the authority of dioceses to offer such blessings.
John Chapman, the new Ottawa diocesan bishop, said in a statement that if the motion passes, “it will leave the matter with the bishop to render a decision.”
Source: Canadian Press
Related story from before The Lead’s inception here.