Last June, the supreme decision-making body of the Anglican Church of Canada, General Synod, voted to reject a motion that would have allowed individual dioceses to authorise same-sex blessings.  Despite that rejection, the Diocese of Ottawa Synod meeting next month will consider a motion to go ahead and authorise ‘em anyway.

The diocese of Ottawa’s regularly scheduled synod will decide Oct. 12-13 whether to request its bishop to grant permission for clergy to bless same-sex relationships.

It is the first diocese to consider the matter since the triennial General Synod, the Anglican Church of Canada’s national governing body, agreed in June that same-sex blessings are “not in conflict” with core church doctrine, but declined by a slim margin to affirm the authority of dioceses to offer them.

Apparently, the instigators of the Ottawa motion are playing on the ambiguity created when General Synod decided SSBs do not conflict with “core doctrine” but then voted not to allow them.

Alan Perry, a canon law expert from the diocese of Montreal, said there is nothing in the church’s canons or constitution that prevents a diocese from going forward with same-sex blessings now that General Synod has said they do not contravene core doctrine. “The mechanism for the diocese as a whole to make such a decision would be a synod motion requesting the bishops to authorize such a liturgy,” he said. If a bishop decides to authorize such a liturgy, “then the deed is done,” he said.

General Synod, he observed, has not stated who, if anyone, has the authority to authorize the blessing of same-sex unions.

That’s because General Synod decided not to give anyone the authority to authorise them.

If this arguably illegal motion passes, it will be up to Ottawa’s new bishop John Chapman to do the right thing.

Another problem Ottawa Synod must ponder is the plan to close up to one-third of its parishes due to poor attendance.  Some might consider that an example of what happens to a church that follows bad advice.

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