New Westminster Explains Itself (Canadian Diocese of New Westminster attempts to tapdance, badly...)

Church Times ^ | 15 January 2004 | Pat Ashworth

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New Westminster explains itself

by Pat Ashworth

THE Canadian diocese of New Westminster is seeking to correct the bishops of the Congo, who last week dissociated themselves from dioceses they described in a statement as “involved in homosexuality” (News, 9 January).

The Congolese bishops strongly condemned what they called the “use of the newly devised prayer book published by the Diocese of New Westminster, Canada for the purpose of officiating the blessing of same-sex marriages”. In response, the New Westminster communications officer, Neale Adams, wrote a letter saying that no prayer book had been devised, and that the blessing was of “covenanted same-sex unions”.

A same-sex wedding was, however, conducted last August by Dean Peter Wall of Christ Church Cathedral in Hamilton, Ontario, where the state has legalised gay marriage. The Dean married a female couple without informing the Bishop of Niagara, the Rt Revd Ralph Spence, who suspended the Dean for three months.

Both the Bishop and the Dean admit that reaction to the wedding from clergy and lay people has varied from indifference to fury. Bishop Spence said that a “clear majority” of the messages he had received were opposed to it; Dean Wall described the overwhelming majority of responses as “very positive and very moving”.

The Canadian Church’s General Synod is due to discuss homosexuality later this year.

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