Leaders of the Anglican Church of Canada spent hours Tuesday discussing whether to bless same-sex unions, a divisive issue that could cause the Canadian wing to break from its parent church.
The highest governing body of the Canadian church is expected to vote Wednesday evening on leaving the decision to individual bishops. Doing so would put the Canadian church at odds with the official position of the global Anglican Communion.
One observer at Tuesday's debate meeting said that delegates appear split right down the middle and that the vote could easily go either way.
The global community of Anglican churches has split over the issue, sharply divided between generally more liberal congregations in the developed world and often more traditional ones elsewhere.
The Most Rev. Andrew Hutchison is shown at the Anglican Church of Canada General Synod 2004 in St. Catharines, Ont. (Sheryl Nadler/CP)
An Anglican spokeswoman told globeandmail.com after the debate Tuesday that it had been a “respectful” discussion in which the 300 delegates had been free to speak their minds. About 50 of them had spoken their piece by the time the two-hour meeting finished, Lorrie Chortyk said. Those left waiting will have another chance before the vote Wednesday.
“There are strong views,” she conceded. “There's definitely people with different views, but they're sharing their perspectives.”
The debate comes a day after they chose a liberal-minded archbishop as the new primate. Former Montreal Archbishop Andrew Hutchinson, 65, was among a group of dissenters who opposed a 1998 decision by the Anglican world body to oppose the blessing of same-sex unions.
At a news conference shortly after his election Monday, Archbishop Hutchison said that unity is “one of the great challenges” facing the church but that unity is not a goal in itself. He said that his main priority would be for the church to reclaim its mission.
“Circumstances outside the church have forced us in recent years to become introspective and to focus on who we are as a church and on our church structure. I want to see us look outward and refocus our attention on our mission,” he said. “...The church exists for the world, not for the church.”
Ms. Chortyk said that the rise of Archbishop Hutchinson has been incorrectly portrayed as a victory for liberals in the church. As primate he acts essentially as a servant of the synod and does not have the power to shape or revoke the decisions the delegates make, she said.
In his opening address at the meeting, the outgoing acting primate, Archbishop David Crawley, urged delegates to avoid the “harsh, vituperative and unacceptable” language that has often marked the debate over the blessing of same-sex unions.
“We all feel deeply about this issue but that is no excuse to descend into the depths,” he said. “...Some comments, both private and public, could never reflect the nature of the realm of God, no matter what you understand it to be.”
The issue of recognizing same-sex unions threatens the unity of the Canadian church, made up of two million members, and the 70-million-member world Anglican church.
Although the global Anglican community is made up 38 autonomous member churches, a 1998 meeting of leading Anglicans from around the world formally opposed the blessing of rituals for same-sex couples, saying that it was "incompatible with scripture."
The issue is acrimonious enough that Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, head of the second-largest Anglican church in the world, stopped attending meetings with the leader of the U.S. church after it made a bishop of Gene Robinson, a gay priest living in a relationship.
With files from The Globe and Mail's Michael Valpy
