The local chandelier option

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From here:

A British woman says she has several love interests, but none of them can hold a candle to Lumiere — a 91-year-old chandelier she plans to marry, according to a report.

Normally this would not be of much interest on an Anglican blog but, since the passing of resolution A101 at General Synod, our bishops have made it reasonably clear that if the canons do not explicitly prohibit a particular form of marriage, then a diocesan bishop is at liberty to concoct “authorized liturgies for the solemnization of”  said marriage.

Emigrate to Canada Amanda Liberty, I’m sure you will be able to find a bishop to have you matrimonially swinging from your chandelier in no time.

Diocese of the Arctic declares itself “self-determining Anglican Church of Canada in the Arctic”

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A point of clarification.

This just appeared on the diocesan Facebook page:

A point of clarity regarding our recent statement:

The Diocese of the Arctic remains a diocese within the Anglican church of Canada, but must distance itself from those who violate the Marriage Canon. The implication of this is a state of “impaired communion”. By using the phrase “self-determining,” we are reserving the right not to affirm or submit to decisions that violate the doctrine of the church on marriage.

Accordingly, I have change the headline to reflect this.

This is going to be interesting.

Diocese of Huron will ignore Marriage Canon vote

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Since Bishop Linda Nicholls has made the career jump to Primate, she won’t be the Bishop of the Diocese of Huron for much longer. As a parting gift, she is authorising same sex marriages in the diocese. Or perhaps she is hammering the final nail in the diocesan coffin.

From here:

Given the strong support in Huron for this possibility, as of August 1, 2019, I am authorizing the availability of marriage to same-sex couples as a pastoral local option under the following guidelines:

1. Same-sex marriages will be permitted in parishes where the priest and the Parish Council have considered this matter and agreed that the parish will do so.
2. Any parish desiring to do so will write a letter to the Bishop requesting permission – signed by the priest (rector/incumbent) and the Wardens and including a description of the consideration taken by the Parish Council.
3. No parish is required to offer same-sex marriage in their location.
4. Clergy already have provision by canon to refuse to perform a marriage for reasons of conscience.
As this is a pastoral local option it is at the discretion of the diocesan bishop. It is an option that I believe is appropriate for the Diocese of Huron at this time and is supported by many, though not all, in the diocese. I am however aware that I will be the Bishop of Huron for only a short time longer. This may be a consideration in the discernment of the next Bishop of Huron. I pray that the diocese will recognize that the work of the bishop is much broader than this issue.

Diocese of Kootenay will ignore Marriage Canon vote

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From here:

Rev. Dr. Lynne McNaughton, elected as Bishop to the Anglican Diocese of Kootenay, to which Cranbrook belongs, earlier this year, will also be issuing a joint statement with other bishops who have affirmed all of this. Additionally, she will be going ahead to authorize same-gender marriage within the Diocese of the Kootenay.

Updated list of dioceses that will marry same-sex couples:
Diocese of New Westminster
Diocese of Toronto
Diocese of Niagara
Diocese of Montreal
Diocese of Ottawa
Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island
Diocese of Rupert’s Land
Diocese of Kootenay
Diocese of Edmonton
Diocese of B.C.
Diocese of Huron

Diocese of New Westminster will ignore Marriage Canon vote

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Bishop Melissa Skelton has announced that the diocese will proceed with same-sex marriages.

Up until now, the diocese did not permit the marriage of same sex-couples because it was waiting for the result of the 2019 Synod vote. Now the synod has voted “no” to same-sex marriage, the diocese is proceeding anyway. That is what passes for rational thinking in the Anglican Church of Canada.

As far as I know, these are the dioceses that will marry same-sex couples:

Diocese of New Westminster
Diocese of Toronto
Diocese of Niagara
Diocese of Montreal
Diocese of Ottawa
Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island
Diocese of Rupert’s Land
Diocese of Kootenay
Diocese of Edmonton
Diocese of B.C.
Diocese of Huron
Please let me know if I have missed one.

From here:

As of August 1, 2019 , I will authorize a liturgy for the marriage of same-sex couples within the Diocese of New Westminster under the following conditions:

  • that the priest wishing to officiate at the marriage make a request of me to use that liturgy and work in consultation with me in preparing to conduct that liturgy. I specify this in that I want us all to learn together as we gain experience in working with this new liturgy and in preparing same-sex couples for the sacrament of marriage.
  • that the Parish Council of any church hosting or wanting to host the marriage of same-sex couples concur with and embrace the decision for same-sex marriages to occur there, and
  • that any same-sex couple wishing to be married satisfy all the typical and important requirements for marriage (proper preparation for marriage, at least one of the couple having been baptized, that the marriage take place in a church or another public place).

I expect the first two conditions to be temporary until we as a community become familiar with this change.

Anglicans describing their own reality

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Popular culture would have it that Truth is relative and subjective: you have your Truth, I have mine and we can all get along.

Now Reality itself has suffered the same fate in the Anglican Church of Canada. According to Bishop Susan Bell, there is no objective Reality. Each diocese “describes its own reality”.

From here:

The bishop of Diocese of Niagara says she isn’t surprised the Anglican Church of Canada voted against recognizing same-sex marriage.

[….]

“I really lament the pain for our LGBTQ2S+ community,” says Bell,  “and for everybody who desired this change.”

But she says that, “We went into the vote with something in our back pockets.”

She’s talking about a document that was drafted before the vote, that allows each diocese to decide individually if it wants to recognize same-sex marriage.

The Niagara diocese already recognized same-sex marriage, before the vote, but Bell says she understands that there are some dioceses and bishops that have not gone ahead with that.

She says the document allows each diocese to describe their own reality.

Statement from the ANiC House of Bishops

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Below is a statement from the ANiC House of Bishops regarding the 2019 General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada.

July 17, 2019

Our dear friends,

For the last while many of us have been much in prayer, knowing that the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) would be convening July 10-16, 2019 in Vancouver for some very significant decisions.

Among them was the second vote potentially to confirm the decision of the 2016 General Synod to change the Marriage Canon.

Friday evening, July 12, 2019, the historic vote happened and though the overall vote was overwhelmingly for the change, because it was to be a Canonical change it required a 2/3 majority in all three houses: Laity, Clergy and Bishops.

The outcome was the motion was defeated by the narrowest of margins because, although the laity and clergy houses both had votes far exceeding the 66.6 % vote required, the House of Bishops only had just over 62% which meant the motion was defeated.

In reflecting on this outcome, while knowing that many Dioceses have already gone ahead for years and have no intention, it would seem, of changing, the ANiC House of Bishops would humbly like to share the following thoughts:

  • We Commend the courage of the 59 who voted “no”—all of whom (but especially in the House of Bishops) stood for scriptural integrity in spite of intense pressure from within and the culture from without. They have resisted the temptation to confirm the motion and through their faithfulness have managed to avert, even temporarily, the tragic path their church seemed to be taking.
  • We are relieved that General Synod has paused somewhat in its departure from the clear teachings of Scripture, and from the Global Anglican majority. This trajectory of departure has not just been evident in questions of sexuality, but also sanctity of life, and key areas of belief in the person and work of Christ.
  • It appears to us that with such narrow margins no one has won and the Body of Christ is fractured even further.
  • The vote seems to confirm that two incompatible gospels are being promoted within the Anglican Church of Canada, tearing the fabric of the Communion at its deepest level.
  • We pray that even now a transformation can take place in the church that so many of us loved and served for so many years, and for that we will continue to pray.
  • We call on The Anglican Church of Canada to return to the common Christian witness that Christ is Lord of all, that he lays claim to every human heart, and that he summons the world to holiness and truth.
  • We express solidarity with many within present Anglican Church of Canada structures who tirelessly upheld and advanced these beliefs over so many years of endless controversy and decline.
  • We rejoice that a realignment is underway in Anglicanism around the globe through the Global Anglican (GAFCON) Movement. We seek ecumenical unity with partners in other Christian traditions upholding strong biblical beliefs. We rejoice that in just 10 years The Anglican Church in North America has launched over 1200 churches throughout the continent who share in these aims.
  • We believe that the Lord wants a great and eternal future for every follower, and for every Church that honours His sovereignty.

Whatever the ultimate outcome, we are very thankful for those who have stood so faithfully in these days and assure them of our prayer for them and for us all in the days ahead, and desire to stand with them in any way that they might find helpful.

We believe our faithful friends have indeed contended “for the faith once for all delivered to the saints”(Jude 1:3) and with them we rejoice in the Lord:

“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

Jude 1:24-25

The House of Bishops of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC)

Anglican Church to review governance structure after same-sex marriage change fails

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The failure of the vote to amend the marriage canon will make no practical difference to same-sex couples who want to marry in an Anglican church. Dioceses that are inclined to permit same-sex marriage are going ahead regardless of the vote.

That is still not enough for those in the church who favour same-sex marriage, as we saw from their extraordinary histrionics at synod when the results were announced. Nothing but complete affirmation will satisfy; just as at the end of Stalin’s speeches, the applause was unanimous and sustained because everyone was afraid of being the first to stop. I strongly suspect that, had the vote passed, the next hurdle for the alphabet crew would be to compel priests who disagree with same-sex marriage to perform them anyway in much the same way as the attempt to force Christian bakers to embellish their cakes with gay propaganda.

Although the vote didn’t pass, there will be another synod in three years. That gives the ACoC plenty of time to change the rules so that it passes next time.

From here:

One of Canada’s largest Christian denominations will spend the next three years considering whether to change its governance structure amid outrage that just two bishops’ votes stood in the way of having same-sex marriage recognized by the Church’s laws.

Some in the Anglican Church of Canada say the current system to alter doctrine and policy — which requires a two-thirds majority from three groups of delegates — unfairly gives the most voting power to a small group of bishops.

The denomination’s outgoing senior officers in charge of its tri-annual policy meeting said Tuesday that the Church will look at ways it can change its governance structure between now and the next General Synod in 2022.

Anglican Church of Canada suffers deficit

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2018 saw the largest decrease in giving since 1994.

Could this be in any way connected with the church’s compulsive obsession with all things sexual other than heterosexual marriage? Surely not.

From here:

A fall in revenues, especially contributions from the dioceses, combined with increased expenses to put the Anglican Church of Canada in a deficit position in 2018, General Synod heard Monday, July 15.

The national church’s audited financial statements for the year show that overall revenue was $11.1 million, down by $800,000—7%—from 2017, Fraser Lawton, bishop of the diocese of Athabasca and a member of the financial management committee, told General Synod. But expenses were $11.8 million—$400,000 more than the prior year, he said, citing rounded figures from the statements.

The deficiency of revenues over expenses for the year, Lawton said, was $735,322 before transfers from internally designated funds.

The decline in revenue was due chiefly to a decrease in proportional gifts from the dioceses—the money they forward to the national church every year, which makes up 83% of the church’s revenue. In 2018, proportional gifts sank to $7,898,264 from $8,416,738 the previous year—a total decline of $519,000, the audited financial statement for 2018 shows.

It was the largest decrease in proportional gifts the national church had suffered in a single year since 1994, Lawton said.

An Imam speaks at Synod

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The Imam spoke about interfaith dialogue. He sounded more sensible than most of the Anglican clergy. He ended his talk by saying something that you won’t hear from the bishops: “we should unite against our common enemies of secularism and liberalism”. Obviously no one briefed him on the fact that he was in the midst of an organisation that is a bastion of secularism and liberalism.

Funnily enough, nobody asked him what he thinks about same-sex marriage.