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This action was the third time in five years that the diocese voted in favor of blessing same-sex unions. But it was the first time Bishop Ingham gave his official consent to them. In 1998, a motion supporting such blessings passed by a very narrow vote of 179-170. At the time, Ingham withheld his consent and initiated a complex dialogue process, pairing churches in the diocese together to discuss the subject of same-sex unions and appointing special commissions to explore the subject from liturgical, legal, and theological points of view.

Last year, the same motion passed 226-174, but the bishop withheld his consent again, suggesting the blessing of same-sex unions ought to be supported by at least 60 percent of the delegates; he also said conservatives needed time to "come to terms" with the possibility that they may be "a new kind of minority."

This year's motion passed 215-129, with 62.5 percent of the vote. Ingham said he had not expected to deal with this issue again so soon after last year's vote. Ingham said he was forced to address it when conservatives brought a motion to synod that proposed forming a new diocese of their own, distinct from the Diocese of New Westminster but overlapping it geographically.

"I think what has happened in the last year is that a small number of people have forced the issue by seeking to break away from the diocese," he said. "I think that's what has changed the conversation and made it impossible really to maintain the status quo."

The bishop claimed most conservatives in the diocese were moderates and would not leave the church over the synod's action. "There is a smaller group that feel very strongly that they will have to leave, but the question for them is where they will go to, because there's only one Anglican Church in Canada," he said.

Walters said the nine churches that left the synod include some of the larger parishes in the diocese, representing up to one quarter of the diocese's membership and one fifth of the diocese's budget, and he said he expected other churches to join them soon. He also noted that three of the churches that walked out were predominantly Chinese, and he said these parishes were especially alienated by the direction the synod had taken.

"If this issue that has come before us is a question of minority rights—we don't want to discriminate on the basis of creed, culture, sexuality, et cetera—then we've just discriminated against culture, because the Chinese culture simply prohibits homosexuality," said Walters.

Archbishop Michael Peers, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada and head of the 700,000-member denomination, said he supported Bishop Ingham's proposal because it tried to meet the concerns of conservative parishes while keeping the structure of the diocese intact.

"You don't build dioceses within dioceses, based on theological positions or something like that," he said in a phone interview from Ontario. "You can't be part of the Anglican Church of Canada unless you're part of the diocese."

St. Matthew's Walters said, "We're really going to be the test case for the Anglican Communion." The blessing of same-sex unions would not have any effect on Canadian law, nor would it be on par with marriage.

The diocese's liturgical commission prepared a possible rite for the blessing of same-sex unions last year, but Bishop Ingham turned it down, on the advice of his legal commission, because it was too similar to a wedding ceremony.

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June (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46