T19BackUp: Archbishop Hutchison says church must look ’seriously’ at primates’ request

February 20th, 2007 posted by kendall at 2:56 pm

The Anglican primates’ directive for the U.S. church to unequivocally bar same-sex blessings and gay bishops is something that the Canadian church “will have to look at seriously,” according to Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.

Archbishop Hutchison acknowledged that while the Canadian church has not ordained a gay bishop nor decided as a national church to allow same-sex blessings, it could face the same consequences “if it were to follow the same path” as The Episcopal Church. The American church’s decision in 2003 to ordain Gene Robinson, the openly gay bishop of New Hampshire, has triggered near-schism in the Anglican Communion.

“The American church is in a different position than we are. It’s the ordination of Bishop (Gene) Robinson (of New Hampshire) that was the main issue that triggered all of these and we’re not in that situation in Canada,” Archbishop Hutchison said in telephone interview with the Anglican Journal. “Furthermore, in the United States, same-sex blessings is something that has happened in a number of dioceses across the country. In Canada, there’s only one diocese where that’s happened and we’re still in the middle of a conversation. So it’s hard to say what the implications may be.”

But he added, “I suppose that if Canada were to follow the same path, which would be a radical move in the same direction as the United States, then we might look forward to a similar kind of response.”

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