Toronto Anglicans will start blessing same-sex relationships within a year, the Toronto Star has learned, a move that puts local churches at the forefront of the issue but could inflame an already divisive debate within the church.<\/p>\n
“One of the chief purposes of the church is to provide care for people who come to the church in a particular need,” Toronto Bishop Colin Johnson told the Star in an exclusive interview.<\/p>\n
The move, a first for any diocese in Canada, brings Toronto churches closer than any others in the country to allowing same-sex marriage blessings \u201d\u201c the most contentious issue facing Anglicanism today.<\/p>\n
It stops just short, however, of offering blessings to gay marriages, offering them instead to couples in “stable long-term committed relationships,” according to a policy paper approved by the executive council of the diocese this week and obtained by the Star.<\/p>\n