Anglican leaders in Arctic condemn same-sex unions

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Anglican church leaders in the Arctic have cemented their stance on same-sex unions, condemning homosexual relationships and demanding that all employees do the same.

Lay people, priests and bishops with the Anglican Diocese of the Arctic presented a common front on the issue at their synod meeting in Iqaluit this week.

The delegates voted unanimously on May 31 to adopt a conservative charter of beliefs called the Montreal Declaration. The document, written in 1994 by fundamentalist Anglican church members, states “adultery, fornication and homosexual unions are intimacies contrary to God’s design.”

Leaders confirmed in interviews after the vote that they are taking a stance against same-sex marriages, common-law marriages and abortion.

Haydn Schofield, arch-deacon of the western Arctic, said he initiated the vote because he wanted the northern churches to make a statement that fit with a “world-wide call to orthodoxy.”

“Marriage is between a man and a woman,” Schofield said. “For there to be a relationship, even common-law is un-Biblical.

“Any union outside of marriage is un-Biblical.”

Schofield’s motion marks a clear break with the wider Anglican Church of Canada. The Canadian church has postponed a decision on same-sex marriage until 2007.

The Arctic Diocese made clear at their meeting that only people with beliefs similar to the Montreal Declaration will be able to work at their churches.

Delegates passed a separate motion on May 31, outlining conditions of employment. The church says it will not employ anyone having sex outside marriage, or who is in a homosexual relationship.

The church will also refuse to employ anyone who “promotes and supports” that sexual behaviour.

Ben Arreak, the church’s bishop for Nunavik, said their stance will keep non-conservative views and practices from entering the church.

Instead, Arreak said Inuit traditional values about relationships between men and women will form the base of their beliefs.

“In order to survive, the man and woman have to help each other, both for family and for hunting,” Arreak said. “We’re not against homosexuals and those individuals, because they’re human beings and we love them. But in order to minister to those in need, we have to stand on the truth.”

The diocese’s newly adopted principles are actually old ones, as seen in the church’s prayer books, according to Rev. John Clarke, one of their most senior leaders.

But Clarke, the metropolitan archbishop for the Arctic Diocese and prairie provinces, said adopting the Montreal Declaration will protect the church from future legal problems.

Clarke said churches need to protect their right not to conduct same-sex marriages, and refuse the use of their property to same-sex events, in light of a bill on same-sex unions introduced by the federal Liberals.

“What I see here is these people have made a very clear statement of faith that goes contrary to our federal government,” Clarke said. “I don’t believe for a moment that [Prime Minister] Paul Martin is correct in saying churches will be protected.

“What better way to protect yourself from future litigation than to have a clear statement of principles?”

Anglican churches around the Arctic will soon send a letter to their premiers, asking them to clarify their legal right to refuse same-sex marriages.