A rchive Date
[ 30-05-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/05/29/98723-cp.html
Thu, May 29, 2003
Archbishop of Canterbury regrets gay blessing
LONDON (CP) - The Archbishop of Canterbury has expressed sadness at a decision by an Anglican diocese in British Columbia to bless same-sex unions.
Most. Rev. Rowan Williams told the Daily Telegraph newspaper in a story published on its front page on Thursday that the move brought him "sadness and disquiet." The Diocese of New Westminster, B.C., had gone "significantly further than the teaching of the church or pastoral concern can justify," he added. "I very much regret the inevitable tension and division that will result from this development."
A spokesman for the church in England could not be reached for comment on Thursday. Its offices were closed to observe Ascension Day.
A homosexual couple in British Columbia became the first to have their union blessed Wednesday evening. Rev. Margaret Marquardt blessed the union of Michael Kalmuk and Kelly Montfort at St. Margaret's Cedar Cottage Church in east Vancouver. Bishop Michael Ingham had earlier authorized six Anglican parishes in the Vancouver area that had shown interest, including St. Margaret's, to perform the rite. The diocese earlier said that in approving the blessings it was fulfilling provisions of the diocesan synod, or meeting, held last June.
However, some parishes in the diocese objected to the bishop authorizing the blessings.
The controversy erupted in the diocese almost a year ago when a majority voted in favour of creating a blessing ceremony for committed gay and lesbian couples.
But eight of the diocese's 80 parishes, who call themselves the Anglican Communion in New Westminster, opposed the decision, saying it went against church teaching. They formed their own group and began withholding annual payments to the diocese. In a letter accompanying the announcement of the rite, Ingham distinguished between the blessing of gays and lesbians, and marriage, which in the church is a sacrament for heterosexual couples.
"This is not a marriage ceremony, but a blessing of permanent and faithful commitments between persons of the same sex in order that they may have the support and encouragement of the church in their lives together under God."
The last Lambeth Conference - a meeting of all the world's Anglican bishops - in 1998 passed a resolution forbidding blessing of same-sex unions and ordination of actively homosexual clergy.
The step has caused bitter divisions within the diocese. Some opposed to gay blessing accepted an offer from Yukon's Bishop Terrence Buckle to become their alternative leader.
Ingham responded with an "inhibition" forbidding Buckle to intervene, but appointed Bishop William Hockin, the retiring bishop of Fredericton, N.B., as an episcopal visitor to work to promote reconciliation.
The role of active homosexuals has become one of the most divisive issues in the Anglican Communion, which claims to represent 77 million people worldwide including 686,000 in the Anglican Church of Canada.
Williams, who was enthroned as leader of the Church of England and the wider communion earlier this year, has drawn fire from conservative evangelicals because of his liberal views on the issue. His critics have been outraged that Williams ordained a homosexual as priest while he was primate of the Church in Wales.
Despite his own views, Williams has pledged to affirm a declaration of the 1998 Lambeth Conference that condemned homosexual relations as "incompatible with Scripture."
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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