We are deeply saddened by today’s decision of the Ottawa diocesan synod. Unfortunately, the synod has chosen to reject the pleas of the global Anglican Communion, and ”˜walk apart’ from the vast majority of Anglicans worldwide.
We are grateful that Bishop Chapman has not made a hasty decision to endorse this action and pray that he will see the wisdom of listening to the Primates’ call. The Primates have asked the Canadian and US Churches for an unambiguous endorsement of traditional Church teaching on sexuality and an end to same-sex blessings.
“At a minimum, we hope the Bishop will provide a period of time to allow parishes and clergy to discuss their futures without fear of reprisal and with the confidence that the Bishop will honour the need for such reasonable and legitimate discussion,” says the Right Reverend Donald Harvey, moderator of the Anglican Network in Canada. “There must be care for people who uphold Biblical teaching and are Communion minded. We need a charitable way forward.”
Should the Bishop agree to this request, the diocese will abandon historic Anglican teaching and signal that it does not value walking with the global Anglican Communion. This would only widen the split and fuel the crisis in the Communion.
This crisis is fundamentally a theological dispute about core Christian and historic Anglican teaching. It is about how we understand the nature, authority and truth of the Scripture. The question for the church is: are we going to view the culture through the lens of Scripture or will we view the Scripture through the lens of our culture. These are irreconcilable views of the Scripture that have led us to the brink of schism in the Anglican Communion. The Ottawa diocesan decision shows that the Anglican Church of Canada has a de facto “local option” policy for same sex blessings which is the opposite of what the Primates of the Anglican Communion requested in their Dar es Salaam Communiqué. This will also violate the conscience of many biblically faithful Anglicans in Canada.
The Network supports biblically-faithful, Communion-committed Canadian Anglicans. We are committed to remaining true to historic Anglican orthodoxy as articulated in the founding principles of Anglicanism in Canada, the Lambeth Conference and the Primates’ Communiqués. We stand firm in the mainstream of Anglican tradition and Christian teaching ”“ together with the vast majority of Anglicans worldwide.
The Primates never asked for “an unambiguous endorsement of traditional Church teaching on sexuality.” Individual Primates may have done so, but it was not among the requests made of TEC by the Primates’ Meeting at DES.
It’s a relatively minor point, perhaps; but it would be better if we were all a little more careful to listen for what people actually say rather than what we wish they had said.
I think they did, asking for an adherence to Lambeth 1.10 (is that the right number?) that sets out the official Anglican Communion teaching on sexuality.
The Primates asked for unambiguous agreement to the Windsor moratoria on SSBs and consecrating non-celibate gay bishops. (Also stuff related to the “pastoral scheme” and litigation, but that’s beside the point at the moment.)
We can imagine that a HOB dominated by Communion-minded liberals (what’s the term for that quadrant?) might have replied with something like, “We still think we’re right, but for the sake of the Communion we’ll avoid putting this into practice while we work to persuade the rest of you around to our position.” Such a statement would have satisfied the DES requests, but it would be very far from an “endorsement of traditional Church teaching on sexuality.”