Anglican Church 'broken', says Canadian primate

Toronto, Canada, Mar 22, 2005 / 22:00 pm

Calling a spade a spade, the Anglican primate of Canada said the Anglican Communion is “broken” over the debate on homosexuality and same-sex marriage regardless of whether the Anglican Church of Canada withdraws from an important church council.

According to a report by the Canadian Press, Archbishop Andrew Hutchison made this statement at an open forum with about 400 parishioners in Toronto March 16

The purpose of the gathering was to discuss the impact of a February meeting of Anglican church leaders in Northern Ireland.

At the end of that meeting, the Canadian church was asked to "voluntarily withdraw" its delegates from the international Anglican Consultative Council until 2008. It cited the blessing of same-sex unions in the Diocese of Westminster, B.C., as the reason.

The U.S. Episcopalian Church was also asked to withdraw because it ordained an openly homosexual bishop

But the Canadian primate told his parishioners that he had offered no guarantees to withdraw the Canadian delegates from the council. Regardless, he said, a split has taken place in the Anglican Communion.

CP also reported that the debate over the blessing of same-sex unions has already led 11 Anglican Canadian parishes to break away from the Anglican Church of Canada and join the church of Rwanda.