Canadian Church told that theology backs gay marriage

THE CHURCH of Canada is being given the green light to allow same-sex marriage blessings, which could prompt a new crisis in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

A new 65-page report, ‘This Holy Estate’, the result of the Commission established by Canada’s Council of General Synod, presents a theological ration- ale for the inclusion of same-sex couples into the marriage canon.

The report was the result of a General Synod call for a ‘broad consultation’ to find a theologically coherent understanding of same-sex unions acceptable within teachings on Christian marriage as well as wording for a conscience clause to be appended to the Church’s Canon XXI.

As a result of the call from the 2013 General Synod, the document identifies three ways of theologically validating same-sex marriage: same-sex marriage as an undifferentiated form of Christian Marriage, which would include gender inclusive terms to the Canon; Same-sex union as ‘Blessed Partnership’, ie blessing same-sex civil marriage without a ref- erence to ‘ covenanting’ and same-sex covenants as a differentiated form of Christian Marriage Covenant.

The document says that gender-neutral language could be seen as a generalisation of marriage ‘to a greater level of abstraction.’ “Let’s celebrate the specifity of heterosexual relationships,” the report says.

The report suggests that same-sex marriage is best viewed as neither ‘identical to’ nor ‘completely different from’ heterosexual union, leaving an ‘ analogous’ relationship between the former and latter.

“Well-formulated analogies illumine both elements being compared. Poorly formulated analogies are weak, or vague,” the report continues.

It points towards ‘Typological’ thinking as a critical way of founding a means of allowing same-sex marriage to come into its own by way of context.

As a theological analogy, the report compares the inclusion of same-sex marriage within the Church to that of the Gentiles into Israel. The report says: “In both cases there is recognition that God’s grace is broader than we had assumed, and that those who had been excluded are now being invited in.”

The “adoption” or “grafting in” is seen on some level as contrary to nature (para

physin, Romans 11:24), yet nonetheless ‘is of God’.

In both cases this inclusion is not completely on the same terms as the original group: “as Gentiles are not called to observe Torah, so same-sex marriages do not share in precisely the same tradition of sexual expression (and its symbolic import) as heterosexual marriage.”

Member of the Commission on the Marriage Canon, the Rt Rev Dr Linda Nicholls of the Diocese of Toronto said: “It’s a different context, a different situation, but it is a pattern of the way God has acted in the past.”

Commission member Canon Paul Jennings said the report is not a question of redefining marriage, but understanding that same-sex couples have something that can ‘broaden’ and ‘enrich’ the institution of marriage and make room ‘for whatever God still has to offer us with this new experience with same-sex couples.’

“Maybe God is intending to graft gay Christians into the institution of Christian marriage, sharing its root meaning yet on somewhat different terms,” he said.

The Rev Chris Newlands told The Church of England Newspaper: “Could it actually be true that God is both calling and equipping gay men and lesbians for ministry in the Church, and that God is asking us to have the humility to let them minister to us?”

He said many would hope such a resolution would come before the Church of England Synod, calling the current policy ‘inconsistent and illogical’.

Mr Newlands told The Church of England Newspaper that opposition to any resolution to change the marriage canon would further strengthen their call for a split in the Anglican Communion.

Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, said the report will be a challenge for some people, ‘even gays, lesbians and transgendered people who will be made to feel like the Gentiles.’

“I will go to the Primates’ Meeting in January and there will be some primates [who] will be all over me about this. I know that. But I try to, as I did today, remind people that in the polity of our church and in the decision-making of our church, here are the parameters within which we work.”

The Rt Rev Charles Masters, Diocesan Bishop of the Anglican Network in Canada, told The Church of England Newspaper that the Church should be a ‘counter-cultural light’.

“It is sad to see the accelerating deterioration within the Anglican Church of Canada.

“The commission’s report - including each of the three options offered, however nuanced - will further normalise this false teaching and practice, and undermine those in that Church who are committed to remaining true to the Bible’s clear teaching about marriage and human sexual expression.” Archbishop Foley Beach of the Anglican Church in North America, told The Church

of England Newspaper that the Anglican Church of Canada continues to push the Bible to the periphery; showing that it has been ‘taken captive by its cultural context’.

“This is not new. In theWindsor Report in 2004, through successive meetings of the Primates of the Anglican Communion in Dromantine and Dar es Salaam, the Anglican Church of Canada has been continually asked to step back from such Communionbreaking actions. They have now commissioned a report that further increases the divisions they have caused.”

In a session following the reception of the Commission’s report, Dean Peter Wall of the Diocese of Niagara said he was “concerned about congregationalism,” since a clause refusing ministers to solemnise a same-sex marriage unless the congregation has passed a resolution seems to refute the idea the Anglican Church “has always been based on synodical and Episcopal leadership and direction.”

Amendment to the Canon includes deleting of the words ‘of the union of man and woman’ and substituting the words ‘partners’ for ‘husband and wife.’

Bishop Linda Nicholls told us: “We’ve been very clear that we’re still talking about marriage. We’re talking about the same vows, the same purpose, and the same definition of marriage.”

What they’ve done, she says, is use “a different theological lens” to look at the matter.

“It’s a little bit like sometimes you look through a glass and you turn it slightly and you see a different band of colours.”