Anglican Church of Canada: Human sexuality motions approved

[Fintan]

Anglican Journal: Human sexuality motions approved

Note: The Anglican Church is the third largest denomination of Christians in Canada following the Roman Catholic Church and United Church.

The diocese of Toronto synod has approved two motions on human sexuality, neither of which changes its current experimental guidelines limiting same-gender blessings to about 10 parishes.

At its November meeting, the synod narrowly approved a motion to send a memorial to General Synod asking that the marriage canon be amended “to allow marriage of all persons legally qualified to marry each other.” The church’s law governing marriage, Canon XXI, defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

The Toronto synod also approved a motion requesting the Canadian House of Bishops to “withdraw the February 1979 statement on human sexuality which prevents the ordination of persons in committed same-gender relationships.”

[Revan]

I think this is a good deal of progress, now if the Roman Catholics would just hurry the F up and get with the times (United has gotten with the times...right?)

[Emberstone]

Originally Posted by Revan

I think this is a good deal of progress, now if the Roman Catholics would just hurry the F up and get with the times (United has gotten with the times...right?)

I wish there was a video clip of it, but if you ever seen Kathleen Madigan (A roman catholic, no less) in her special 'Gone Madigan', you might already know the joke. For those who havent seen it (pssst, you can netflix stream it), here is a paraphrase.

"my mom has high hopes for the new pope, and I was like mom 'last year, the catholic church apolagized to the russian orthaodox church for things that we did to them in the year 1326... mom, thats the folder the catholic church is on! they haven't even gotten to gravity!'"

That about sums up the possiblity of getting acceptance by the catholic hierarchy of the humanity of LGBT people as children of god... they haven't even gotten to gravity!!!

[Fintan]

From what I understand, the 'United Church in Canada' leaves the decision to do or not do Gay Marriages up to each individual parish. So some churches do and some don't. Depends where you live I guess.

The 'Anglican Church of Canada' doesn't do Gay Marriages at all. However, 'Gay Blessings' are occuring as 'test-runs' in major centres, such as Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal and have been approved in a couple of areas permanently. So, you can have a civil wedding and then go to a Church for a 'blessing of committment' for the union. The Anglican Church of Canada did vote on allowing Gay Blessings across the board in 2007, however, it was defeated by a handful of votes. I think in the end, what is holding the Anglican Church of Canada back is the fact that, they are apart of a very large worldwide church and Anglicans in Africa, Asia & South America become very angry and threaten to throw Canada out of the 'Anglican Communion' if it moves forward on this issue. For example, the Episcopal Church of the United States (Anglican Branch in the USA) approved Gay Marriage a number of years ago and they are continuously banned from International Anglican meetings because of it.

The Roman Catholic Church, the largest Church in Canada, does not approve of gay unions at all. I think the major reason that it will not move forward on this is similar to that of the Anglican Church; however much more critical. The Roman Catholic Church is massive, including roughly 1 in 6 people on earth and a LARGE number of its members live in Asia, Africa, Central & South America where Gay unions/blessings would be very unpopular.