Ottawa Anglicans vote for blessing of gay marriages
OTTAWA (AFP) — Anglicans in this capital city voted 177 to 97 in favor of blessing gay marriages over the weekend, becoming the second diocese in Canada to support same-sex unions, a church spokesman said Monday.
The motion was "overwhelmingly approved" by some 300 clergy and lay people at a meeting of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa, Brian Sarjeant told AFP.
"They voted to allow clergy whose conscience permits to bless duly solemnized and registered civil marriages between same-sex couples," he said.
But Ottawa Bishop John Chapman, who must approve the protocol, will not immediately adopt it, choosing to "study the vote results" and present them to fellow Anglican bishops at talks later this month, Sarjeant said.
The Anglican diocese of Montreal is also expected to debate a similar motion at its own annual meeting next weekend.
Homosexuality has divided the 77-million-strong global Anglican community since the US Episcopal Church, the US branch of the Anglican communion, approved the appointment of an openly gay bishop in 2003, angering more conservative branches of the church.
In June, a meeting of the Anglican Church of Canada narrowly defeated a resolution that would have allowed dioceses to decide for themselves whether or not to bless same-sex unions.
Lay delegates and clergy voted in favor of the June motion, but the House of Bishops nixed the plan.
Even so, Canada's westernmost New Westminster diocese, which approved same-sex union blessings in 2002 and blessed its first gay marriage in 2003, continues the practice.
