ANGLICANS TO BLESS SAME-SEX UNIONS

VANCOUVER, June 17, 2002 (LSN.ca) – Anglicans are in danger of splintering over the decision of one of their largest dioceses to “bless” homosexual unions. On Saturday, 344 governing synod members of Vancouver’s Diocese of New Westminster, which has 80 churches and 25,000 members, voted 63% to 37% to bless same-sex unions.  After the vote, representatives of one of Canada’s largest and most respected orthodox evangelical Anglican congregations, St. John’s (Shaughnessy) Church, walked out in protest with eight other parishes. Trevor Walters, a Fraser Valley pastor, said some parishes could leave the church altogether, taking about 24% of diocese members. But another conservative said parishes would only be leaving the synod, pending a ruling by the national House of Bishops.  Archbishop Michael Peers, titular head of the Anglican Church of Canada, praised the voting “process” but added that he and fellow bishops are “not prepared to endorse the blessing.” Peers ruled out naming a second Vancouver bishop for parishes which can no longer accept New Westminster Bishop Michael Ingham’s renegade leadership, which has long troubled Vancouver’s orthodox Anglicans.  Ingham’s comment was: “Hopefully cooler heads will prevail and people will take a longer view … I believe the synod has been evenhanded.” However, “evenhanded,” in the mind of radicals like Ingham, means overturning scripture and tradition while imposing the homosexual agenda and other liberal dogmas.  For National Post coverage see: https://www.nationalpost.com/national/story.html?id={D41DE566-369D-491D-9AC9-F33AC60D009F}  For Canadian Press coverage (link usually valid only for one day) see: https://www.canoe.ca/CNEWS/samesex_jun16-cp.html   To read the Diocese’s announcement of the decision see: https://www.vancouver.anglican.ca/default.asp?Menu=1&SubMenu=0&Item=0&Content=NEWS&Mode=NEW&Article=312