{"id":27402,"date":"2019-07-15T14:41:49","date_gmt":"2019-07-15T18:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/?p=27402"},"modified":"2019-07-15T14:58:43","modified_gmt":"2019-07-15T18:58:43","slug":"oscar-worthy-performances-at-general-synod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/oscar-worthy-performances-at-general-synod\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar worthy performances at General Synod"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read it all here<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cOur children are crying.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was how Primate Fred Hiltz\u2014paraphrasing the observation of delegate Michael Chartrand\u2014described the pain in the room following the failure of the 42nd General Synod to pass a resolution amending the marriage canon, which would have allowed for the solemnization of same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose words are going to haunt the Anglican Church for a long time,\u201d says Sydney Brouillard-Coyle, a youth delegate from the diocese of Huron who identifies as gender non-conforming, queer and asexual. Though members of General Synod had long been preparing for upheaval after the vote on July 12 no matter the outcome, when the results finally came, the anguish it caused for LGBTQ Anglican youth almost defies description.<\/p>\n

Waiting for the vote results to come in, Lyds Keesmaat-Walsh\u2014a member of the Church of the Redeemer in Toronto who identifies as non-binary, agender and transmasculine, queer in their sexuality\u2014and who, like Brouillard-Coyle, prefers they\/them pronouns\u2014was \u201covercome with fear like I have never known before, and I\u2019ve gone through multiple coming-outs.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the results appeared, and it became clear that the resolution had failed to secure the required two-thirds majority in the Order of Bishops, Keesmaat-Walsh, 20, felt a grief that they had only experienced once before, when a close friend was killed in a shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sound that came out of my mouth was not a sound I knew I could make,\u201d they say. \u201cAnd I collapsed. I completely collapsed into Bishop Andrew [Asbil]\u2019s chest. I\u2019m very grateful he was there.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the tears flowed, seeing a delegate nearby that they believed had not voted in favour of the motion proved too much to bear. \u201cI looked across the table \u2026 and I knew I could not stay in this room any longer. And I got up and I fled.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pain felt by queer youth delegates may have been particularly intense, but it was not unique. Across General Synod, pain and grief were the overwhelming emotions that followed the vote, both among those who voted for the resolution and those who voted against it.<\/p>\n

Even as the church struggled with the aftermath of the vote, new developments suggested that the matter is far from over. Almost immediately after the vote, delegates came up to the microphone to ask what their options were for reconsidering a decision at General Synod. LGBTQ youth delegates led a protest at the next day\u2019s worship service before the election of a new primate. And many voices indicate they will continue their struggle for the Anglican Church of Canada to recognize same-sex marriage.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Before anyone accuses me of not understating teenage girls, let alone \u201cnon-binary, agender and transmasculine, queer in their sexuality\u201d girls, let me say, \u201cyou\u2019re right, I don\u2019t understand teenage girls\u201d.<\/p>\n

But I do have teenage granddaughters and I\u2019ve learned to recognise a tantrum when I see one and I know that giving in to the tantrum is the wrong thing to do.<\/p>\n

I remember one of my granddaughters, after wearing herself out shrieking, falling on my shoulder sobbing, \u201cmy life is over\u201d. I can\u2019t remember what caused her to make this radical diagnosis and I don\u2019t suppose she can either. I patted her on the back and said, \u201cthere, there, it isn\u2019t as bad as all that\u201d while privately musing on whether tantrums were a necessary or contingent aspect of being a teenage girl.<\/p>\n

In case anyone is thinking I am heartless and emotionless, let me reassure you, it is not so. Sometime after the rejection of the marriage canon amendment, I too, found myself crying, screaming and running out of the room in despair. It was when Roger Federer lost the Wimbledon final.<\/p>\n

To be serious for a moment \u2013 now I\u2019ve wiped the tears off my keyboard: adults are supposed to be calmer and wiser than teenagers. No parent in his right mind gives in to teenage tantrums; yet that is exactly what is happening at synod. Since the result of vote has caused so much pain<\/em>, everyone is scurrying about trying to find a way of having another vote to produce the right<\/em> result.<\/p>\n

It is theology by tantrum :<\/p>\n

Options for reconsideration
\n<\/strong>Following the vote on July 12, delegates went to the microphones and asked what options General Synod had for reconsidering a decision made.
\nThere are two ways synod can do so, Chancellor David Jones explains to the Journal<\/em>. In the first method, once the discussion of a matter has been concluded, members can ask for reconsideration, which would require a two-thirds majority of the house.<\/p>\n

The second method is that members could bring forward a somewhat different motion, but dealing with the same general topic. Because General Synod has now passed the deadline for bringing a motion, rules would require a two-thirds majority of the house in order to commit a late motion.<\/p>\n

Since same-sex marriage is a question of doctrine, an objection might be why the Anglican Church of Canada would not require two readings at successive General Synods to re-examine the matter. The answer is that the amending formula, as stated in the Declaration of Principles, only requires two readings at successive General Synods if the resolution is a matter of doctrine in a canon.<\/p>\n

The process that led up to the July 12 vote started at the 2013 Joint Assembly with a resolution, C003, to amend the marriage canon so that it would apply equally to all, i.e. both heterosexual and same-sex couples.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it hadn\u2019t said \u2018amend the canon,\u2019 if it simply said [to] bring a motion that a minister in the Anglican Church of Canada may solemnize a same-sex marriage, it wouldn\u2019t have needed two readings and it wouldn\u2019t have needed two-thirds,\u201d Jones says.<\/p>\n

As the chancellor points out in a 2016 memorandum, Canon XXI on marriage does not define marriage, nor does it explicitly prohibit same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n

Conservative synod members have criticized this memorandum. Royal, for instance, says that \u201caccepting the chancellor\u2019s memo sets us on a dangerous path as a church, because what it does is it allows us to do things that are not explicitly prohibited in canons. It\u2019s an argument from silence\u2026. That\u2019s a dangerous precedent to set, and I disagree with the chancellor\u2019s memo very, very strongly.\u201d Parsons told the chancellor directly in 2016 that it was \u201cwrong for him to put out that memo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones, however, insists that such criticisms \u201care assuming that the canon prohibits [same-sex marriage]. The canon doesn\u2019t. Show me where it does. It doesn\u2019t. Read the canon.\u201d<\/p>\n

In light of the canon text, church rules and the fact that 76% of people in the room on July 12 voted in favour of the resolution, Jones draws the following conclusion about the marriage debate: \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s over at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

He suggests a number of possible scenarios going forward. Since many dioceses already solemnize same-sex marriages, other dioceses \u201cthat have held back\u2026will go ahead\u201d and bless same-sex marriages. A motion could come before the present General Synod while it is still in session, or the matter may come before the next General Synod.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may come in a very simple format,\u201d Jones says. \u201cIt may simply be that this General Synod declares that a minister may solemnize the marriages of any two persons authorized to marry by civil law.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"After reading over the article again, I started to suspect this whole episode was a concoction of Titania McGrath<\/a>. But it can’t be; not even (s)he is that inventive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Read it all here: \u201cOur children are crying.\u201d That was how Primate Fred Hiltz\u2014paraphrasing the observation of delegate Michael Chartrand\u2014described the pain in the room following the failure of the 42nd General Synod to pass a resolution amending the marriage … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2375,1390],"class_list":["post-27402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglican-church-of-canada","tag-gs2019","tag-same-sex-marriage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}