Some Anglicans oppose church move condemning same-sex, common-law unions

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Anglican church leaders in the North are turning their backs on many Inuit by adopting a statement opposing same-sex unions and common-law marriage, according to critics in the church.

The leaders’ recent stance against homosexuality, common-law marriage and abortion has created at least one splinter group within their congregation at St. Jude’s Cathedral in Iqaluit.

Maureen Doherty, a long-time Anglican living in Iqaluit, said the leaders are breaking with northerners’ long-standing tradition of tolerance. Instead, she said the leaders are encouraging homophobia in the church.

“I find it absolutely disheartening,” Doherty said in an interview last week. “The Anglican church has always been for me a place that affirms human rights and acceptance and has been pro-active in building community. I see this as being in direct opposition to those values.”

Doherty and several other church members failed last month to convince their leaders to abandon a campaign to condemn same-sex marriage.

Delegates from churches of the Anglican Diocese of the Arctic supported a motion against homosexuality during their synod meeting in a college gymnasium in Iqaluit last week. The pan-northern meeting occurs once every three years.

The diocese is the largest religious organization in the North, and includes an estimated 30,000 people from Nunavut, Nunavik and the Northwest Territories.

All 70 delegates at the synod backed a motion to adopt the Montreal Declaration as their own. Their churches – as well as new staff joining the church – will now be expected to accept the conservative religious statement of beliefs, composed in Montreal in 1994.

Before the vote, about a dozen Anglicans in Iqaluit sent a dissenting letter to Bishop Andrew Attagotaluk, the diocese’s top leader.

The letter calls on the synod to reject the Montreal Declaration, adding that they were troubled by “the hurtful and discriminatory language” used by the executive leaders pushing for the vote.

Marion Willms, an Iqaluit resident who drafted the letter, said she wanted to discuss the issues with the delegates, but felt moderate Anglicans were shut out of the debate.

“I’m struggling with the Anglican church here,” said Willms. “For me, it’s not a comfortable place to be.

“Anglicans pride themselves on taking the middle ground, and supporting each other, and listening to each other. That’s where I want to be.”

Willms said delegates should have held wider consultations on the charter. She claims the document doesn’t reflect the life of Inuit who are in common-law relationships, or raising children on their own.

“It assumes family is mother, father and children,” Willms said. “That’s not reflecting the reality of 2005. That definition of family is very narrow and is not reflective of the wider Anglican body.”

Willms suspects that the diocese felt pressured to move towards stances taken by fundamentalist churches in the North, which have been growing in popularity.

Nunavut’s gay community representatives have taken a reserved stance.

Stephanie Hawkins, president of the Iqaluit Pride and Friends of Pride association, said they’re “not enthusiastic” about the decision, but respect the church’s right to their own religious beliefs.

“It’s a two-way street,” Hawkins said. “We’ll accept that it’s your faith and that your interpretation doesn’t reflect all Canadians. And we can co-exist.”

Anglicans who signed the protest letter plan to support the gay community at their upcoming annual picnic in Sylvia Grinnell Park in Iqaluit.

Doherty, who’s father is an Anglican minister in Toronto, quipped that even her religion’s messiah would be there.

“If I think of ‘what would Jesus do?’, I think Jesus Christ would probably come out and break bread at the Pride picnic on June 12,” Doherty said.

“He included everyone and that is my understanding of the Christian faith.”