Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Anglican Church of Canada, quoted in the Anglican Journal says, “The decision by the diocese of Niagara to offer same-sex blessings as of Sept. 1 is bound to create some tension among bishops, says Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.” More:
Michael Bird, the diocesan bishop of Niagara, informed the Canadian house of bishops of his plan to offer same-sex blessings when it met last October. Subsequently, the house released a statement affirming a continued commitment to the moratorium on same sex blessings while recognizing the moratorium would be difficult for other dioceses to implement.
Archbishop Hiltz said his hope is that “in the spirit of that statement, we would remain in relationship with one another.”In an earlier interview, the bishop of Caledonia, Bill Anderson, said that he “cannot recognize the legitimacy of what Niagara is doing.” By ignoring calls for a moratorium on same-sex blessings from various bodies of the Anglican Communion, Niagara “has chosen to walk apart, and is therefore in a state of impaired communion,” he said.
Asked whether he thought that the diocese of Niagara’s decision contravened a General Synod resolution in 2007, Archbishop Hiltz said, “The General Synod said by resolution that dioceses don’t have the authority to exercise local option (on same-sex blessings). We know that, and yet we live in a church where we have diocesan synods, provincial synods, and we have particular pastoral contexts, which I think inform the way people think about this issue.” (That resolution declared that blessing rites for gay couples are “not in conflict” with core church doctrine but refused to allow dioceses to offer them.)