GREENWOOD, June 14, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Two male members of Canada’s military were “married” May 3, according to the base’s head chaplain, Lt.-Cmdr. David Greenwood, an Anglican minister. “This couple had been waiting a very long, long time,” said Greenwood.
Though he could not be the officiant at the ceremony himself, far from objecting, Greenwood made all the arrangements for a United Church minister to come and do the ‘honors.‘“I looked after the co-ordination in accordance with our military policy of receiving the couple with dignity and respect,” said Greenwood. “I was there to preach and welcome the community on behalf of the base chaplaincy.”
The Anglican Church has been the centre of a controversy since New Westminster’s bishop Michael Ingham announced that ministers in his diocese must perform the ceremonies for homosexual partners. The move, in conjunction with the US Episcopal church decision to ordain an active and unrepentant homosexual adulterer as a bishop, prompted a world-wide uproar in the Anglican Church.
At the same time, the provincial jurisdictions in Canada, including Nova Scotia, have been allowing courts to rule that marriage is no longer to be understood as the union between one man and one woman. Halifax’s Catholic Archbishop, Most Rev. Terrence Prendergast, said in an interview with Zenit news agency, “This legal redefinition signals the end of the state’s support for marriage as we know it. This redefinition transforms the civil institution of marriage into a registered domestic partnership system for adults in a co-dependent relationship.”
Federal legislation to redefine marriage is expected to pass within days as the government has made it a very high priority item on its legislative agenda. Ottawa contacts have told LifeSiteNews.com that a condition of the NDP Party deal to support the government budget and prevent a fall of the government is that C-38 must be passed into law before the summer recess.
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