The activists behind a controversial push to have the Anglican Church of Canada allow the recognition of same-sex couples have offered a compromise that would defer the issue for at least three years.
Late Wednesday afternoon, hours before the original motion was to come to a vote at a meeting of the Canadian church's leaders, an amendment was introduced that would refer the issue back to the House of Bishops for study. Under the proposal, the earliest the issue could come to a vote would be 2007.
“It was actually the same people who moved the original motion,” Anglican spokeswoman Lorrie Chortyk told globeandmail.com. “A layperson from the diocese of Toronto and it was seconded by the Bishop of the diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.”
Ms. Chortyk denied reports that the original motion had been discarded because of its divisiveness.
“They haven't discussed it all. It's happening tonight from seven to nine,” she explained in a telephone interview from St. Catherines, Ont. “The original motion hasn't even been presented yet. So nothing's been tossed out or decided.”
Ms. Chortyk said that the 300 delegates at the meeting will have the chance Wednesday evening to vote first on whether to accept the motion as amended. If they do, it will be discussed and then voted upon.
If not, the original motion called that the issue be left to the discretion of the individual bishops.
In comments earlier Wednesday, the new head of the Canadian church had predicted that the original motion wouldn't survive the day.
“There is a motion before the synod and discussion goes on through the day,” Primate Andrew Hutchison told CBC Newsworld early in the morning.
“But I think it's quite unlikely that the motion will survive in its present form. It's been subject to a number of amendments and I think, in the final analysis, we may end up voting on quite a different motion.”
Primate Hutchison, who was elected leader Monday on the fourth ballot, is seen as a liberal but says that he is not comfortable with same-sex marriage. That said, in the same interview he said that he doesn't “have any difficulty” with “two faithful Christian people who are serving in a congregation [who] simply want the community to say ‘god bless you'.”
He also played down the potential for a deep rift within the world community of Anglican churches if the Canadians decide to accept same-sex unions.
“I think there'll be some difficulties internationally,” he conceded “There were difficulties when polygamy was still allowed in parts of our communion. There were difficulties when women were ordained in some parts of our communion and not others. So, we've been there.”
The issue has polarized the Anglican community and has led to deep divisions between liberal and conservative branches. 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 bitter 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.
Primate Hutchison, while not saying how he will vote later Wednesday, said that, despite the acrimony, Anglicans have to believe that the process is being guided by a higher authority.
“One has to trust the process and trust the movement of the spirit in the church,” he said.
“It's not inconsequential, Anglicans from coast to coast to coast have been praying for this meeting for months in preparation for it and we truly believe that the spirit of god will prompt whatever decisions might be appropriate at this time.”
