Reconciliation in Canadian Diocese of New Westminster Hits Snag
Episcopal News Service. February 18, 2003 [2003-034]
James Solheim
(ENS) Attempts at reconciliation with parishes in the Diocese of New Westminster, in the Anglican Church of Canada, that oppose the decision last June opening the way to blessing of same-gender relationships have hit a serious snag.
According to Gordon Sloan, who has been facilitating the attempts at reconciliation, the eight parishes have told him they want to talk about separation, not reconciliation. While he is talking with both sides to see if there are grounds for further discussion, Bishop Michael Ingham told the Diocesan Council at its February 11 meeting that "we at this moment have no plans to meet again. The position the diocesan representatives took was that we were sad to hear" that reconciliation would be difficult.
While the three sets of talks held so far have been cordial, according to Ingham, they have not moved beyond issues of process. "The position of the eight parishes in the conversations has been largely to restate the position that they have taken against homosexual relationships as unbiblical and immoral--and against synod and myself for presuming to bless what they believe God has condemned," he said in a diocesan news release.
Ingham described a January meeting where the facilitator put on the wall a diagram of "a watershed. On one side of the watershed was conversations towards reconciliation, meaning finding a way of living together with difference--deep difference in conviction, finding a way to live together in mutual respect. And on the other side of the watershed was conversations about separation."
Before returning to the room with the diocesan representatives, Ingham said, "they sent a message to us via the facilitator indicating they were no longer interested in pursuing the path of reconciliation. While they felt the talks should continue, it would have to be down the other side of the watershed."
The bishop said that he concluded that "they felt they could not continue that discussion with us unless we agreed essentially to reverse course on the synod decision." The diocese was not willing to do that, he said. On the other hand, he told the diocesan council that he had not decided when to release the rite for blessing unions, delaying "to give the process of reconciliation every possible chance."
The other side
In a February 14 news release, the eight parishes, organized as the Anglican Communion in New Westminster (ACiNW), challenged the diocesan interpretation of the reconciliation process.
"While it is true that talks toward reconciliation per se have ended, the allegation that ACiNW refused to discuss anything but separation is entirely false," said the release from Ed Hird, executive of ACiNW. He said that he sent a memo to the diocese explaining that ACiNW "needed time to decide how it wanted to proceed and what issues it felt needed to be explored further."
In the statement, Hird said that "the ACiNW position has always been that simple reconciliation on terms set out by the bishop," terms that do not provide "substantive provisions for conservative parishes, is not feasible, realistic, or biblically defensible." He said that "this incident is a demonstration as to why the distrust between these parties is so deep and so difficult to bridge…. The gulf between our parties is indeed painfully substantial--and the solution must be substantial as well."
The statement concluded, "The ACiNW remains hopeful that a substantial solution can be reached that provides for the least amount of disruption and honours the needs of both parties to continue in ministry."