c. 2007 Religion News Service

Ottawa Anglicans approve same-sex blessings

TORONTO (RNS) The Ottawa diocese of the Anglican Church of Canada has approved same-sex marriage blessings in a move sure to inflame tensions in the worldwide Anglican Communion in the debate over gay rights.

Voting Saturday (Oct. 13) by a margin of 177 to 97, delegates to the diocese’s annual synod in Cornwall approved a motion asking the local bishop to allow clergy “whose conscience permits” to bless same-sex unions.

The delicately-worded motion did not ask that gay couples be allowed to marry in an Anglican church, or even that their civil unions be sanctified. It just asked that priests be given the right to approach the bishop for permission for such a blessing, should the priest and parish approve.

The motion seems to fly in the face of a vote at the national church’s synod last June, where delegates voted down a plan to let local churches decide for themselves whether to bless same-sex marriages.

At the same time, however, the national church also ruled in June that same-sex blessings do not run afoul of core Anglican doctrine. In 2004, the national church affirmed the “integrity and sanctity” of same-sex relationships but stopped short of authorizing blessing ceremonies for gay couples.

The issue has been roiling in Canada since 2002, when Bishop Michael Ingham approved same-sex blessings in the British Columbia diocese of New Westminster, helping to ignite an international uproar.

Ottawa Bishop John Chapman said he welcomed Saturday’s vote, and said any final decision on whether to bless gay marriages rests with him, and he expects to take his time making that decision. He wants to talk to other bishops, both nationally and internationally, before going ahead with a policy.

“It’s not helpful to walk alone,” he told the Ottawa Citizen newspaper. “We’re not afraid to walk alone but we don’t want to walk alone.”

Conservative church leaders immediately condemned the Ottawa vote.

“It goes to the very opposite direction to what the international church is calling for,” retired Newfoundland bishop Donald Harvey, moderator of the conservative Anglican Network in Canada, told the Toronto Star.

The diocese of Montreal is expected to debate a similar motion at its own annual meeting next week.

_ Ron Csillag

National Association of Evangelicals names Anderson president

WASHINGTON (RNS) Leith Anderson, the Minnesota megachurch pastor who has twice served as interim president of the National Association of Evangelicals, was formally named president on Thursday (Oct. 11).

Anderson, senior pastor of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minn., was named interim president in November 2006 following the resignation of former Colorado megachurch pastor Ted Haggard, who was brought down in a sex and drug scandal.

In a unanimous vote, the association board approved Anderson’s selection during a meeting in Arlington, Va.

“Leith Anderson is a man of astute mind and has a wealth of experience the NAE needs,” said Israel Gaither, national commander of the Salvation Army and a member of the NAE’s Executive Committee. “In my view he is just the right leader for the NAE for this critical time.”

Anderson, 63, has been the senior pastor of his church, which is affiliated with the Baptist General Conference, since 1977. The congregation has grown to 5,000 regular attendees during his tenure and is known for its outreach abroad, including to those suffering from HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Anderson also served as the NAE’s interim president from 2001 to 2003, when Haggard became president.

Haggard was dismissed last November from his Colorado Springs church for “sexually immoral conduct.” He said he paid a Denver man for massages and bought methamphetamine. Haggard acknowledged sexual immorality but denied using the drug.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Catholic families restart school nearly 40 years later

WARREN, Mass. (RNS) After being shuttered for almost 40 years, a Catholic school has been reopened by a group of Catholic parents, albeit at a different location and under a different form of leadership.

St. Thomas Aquinas School, a K-8 school when it was closed in 1969, is now a K-3 school operating at St. Stanislaus Catholic Church here, said the Rev. Daniel J. Becker, pastor of three local Catholic churches, including St. Stanislaus and St. Thomas Aquinas.

The school was created by several families that were home-schooling their children and is leasing space from St. Stanislaus parish, Becker said. Although it is a private school like other Catholic educational institutions, the school is not being run by a diocese.

Becker said that the school’s curriculum has been approved by local public school boards and Bishop Robert J. McManus of Worcester has granted approval, including the use of the school’s name.

“It is not exactly the same kind of school that it was before,” Becker said. “It is not run by the (Catholic) church. It is run by the (founding) families.”

Becker said there are six families involved at the new school, and they have eight children enrolled. The pupils are in kindergarten, first or second grade. The third grade has no enrollment yet, Becker said.

_ Chris Hamel

Quote of the Day: Robert Parham of the Baptist Center for Ethics

(RNS) “As the Good Book says, `No prophet is accepted in his own country.’ Indeed, three Baptists of the South have received greater honor in their time from others than their own.”

_ Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics, in an EthicsDaily.com column about former Vice President Al Gore becoming the third prominent Baptist to win the Nobel Peace Prize, after former President Jimmy Carter in 2002 and the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964.

KRE/CM END RNS