Moments before they decided to align with an orthodox Anglican bishop in South America, members of Vancouver's St. John's Shaughnessy Church, one of the largest Anglican congregations in Canada, attended a Bible study session.
In the latest development in a controversy that has arisen within several different religions, the conservative Anglican congregation in Vancouver voted on Wednesday evening to request episcopal oversight by Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. If accepted, the Vancouver parish would, in effect, be cut off from the Anglican Church in Canada.
The rector, Rev. David Short, talked a lot about church unity that day, Lesley Bentley, a spokeswoman for St. John's Shaughnessy, said yesterday in an interview.
Mr. Short spoke about the importance of church unity with Scripture and of a common understanding of Scripture, particularly around core values, Ms. Bentley recalled. "It was about the supremacy of the Bible and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ."
The study group did not talk about the blessing of same-sex unions, she added. "From our point of view, that is not what the vote was about," Ms. Bentley said.
The schism within the church in Greater Vancouver stems from a decision at the annual meeting of the Diocese of New Westminster in June of 2002 to allow clergy to bless long-term same-sex relationships. The Diocese of New Westminster includes the entire Vancouver region and the Sunshine Coast.
Most Anglican churches in the region support same-sex blessings. However, St. John's Shaughnessy walked out of the diocese after the vote in 2002. It tried to maintain its ties with the national organization, the Anglican Church of Canada. At the request of the diocese, the national organization refused.
As a result, St. John's Shaughnessy since 2002 has been unable to arrange the ordination of young men and women trained at the parish who are ready for the ministry.
The dispute is over a much more fundamental issue than a disagreement over same-sex blessings, Ms. Bentley said. Bishop Michael Ingham, who heads the Diocese of New Westminster, deals with Scripture in a completely different way than the congregation at St. John's Shaughnessy, she said.
"He looks at Scripture through the lens of what is happening in society now and tries to make Scripture adapt to society. We look at society through the lens of Scripture and say, how does Scripture inform us about what is happening in society now," Ms. Bentley said.
The vote on same-sex blessings in 2002 was the only opportunity to express formally their opposition to Bishop Ingham's views, she said.