From CP:
Instead of debating the issue last night, delegates at the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada spent hours wrangling over procedural issues.
Canada’s outgoing primate, or church leader, seemed somewhat fed up after two hours of discussion about technical issues, and even joked the debate would go more smoothly after a good night’s rest.
“It vexes me that Anglicans are prepared to spend more energy in process than substance,” said Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, a comment that drew cheers and clapping from the delegates and observers.
As they debated how the vote would work, Rev. Douglas Stoute urged the 300 delegates to make a decision once the rules are established. The Toronto minister said people want a clear answer.
“They want us to leave here having said something, and not just done a shuffle. This issue is not going to go away,” Stoute said.
a 50% ‘balance of probabilities’ basis rather than ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ does not seem an ideal basis on which to decide matters which you have already decided are part of doctrine.
Kendall: Let us suppose that the synod refuses to sanction homosexual marriage. Will this decision have any effect on the larger debate in the larger world, or is this simply an unimportant decision by an unimportant religious minority? In short, is this a tempest in a teapot? It REALLY would be useful to see the synod’s role in a context larger than its own busy little world. LM
Larry #2
Accepting SSU or “homosexual marriage” (some would say there is a difference, but not me) as within the doctrine of the ACC would directly contradict the requests of the Windsor Report. So, it would be a “big thing”, more so than ecusa allowing individuals to decide on their own whether to individually do the same thing.
Interesting that Hutchison, who has vexed the Anglican Communion behind the lead of the Presiding Bishops of ECUSA/TEC for his entire tenure in office, is now belaboring process! This suggests that he senses the victory of his erroroneous conceptions and merely wishes the formalities to be over. I wonder he has a post – or anticipates a post – in the new thang communion of errors? The irony of this remark is overwhelming. So much for listening and dialogue and the Holy Spirit’s leading when the odour of victory is in the nostrils of man. How God perceives it is, of course, another matter.