Source: Anglican Mainstream
Leading Anglicans said today that the ordination of a ‘practising homosexual’ in Dunedin this Saturday could split the Church in New Zealand and the Anglican Communion.
The Latimer Fellowship and Anglican Mainstream NZ have written a letter to the three Archbishops of the New Zealand Church appealing to them to stop or postpone the ordination of a man who is understood to be in an 18-year same-sex relationship. The Bishop of Dunedin, the Rt Revd George Connor, has announced his intention to ordain him in Dunedin on Saturday 4th November.
The Latimer spokesperson, the Revd Malcolm Falloon, said “Archbishop David Moxon recently called for up to seven years of careful listening and conversation. The Bishop of Dunedin appears to have given him less than seven weeks!”
“We believe that this ordination should be at least postponed until after proper consultation and debate has been conducted on what is certainly a deeply divisive issue,” said the Revd Max Scott, Chairman of Anglican Mainstream NZ and Vicar of a parish in the Auckland Diocese.
Read the constitutional basis for objections here
The view expressed in the letter was that, if this ordination proceeds, it would not only breach the Constitution and Canons of the Church but fly in the face of the calls for restraint on this issue from the wider Communion and the Archbishop of Canterbury.
In a separate letter the Vicar’s of New Zealand’s 10 largest Anglican Churches have also expressed their own protest at the proposed ordination.
As yet, the Archbishops and the house of Bishops have been unable to give a clear response to the letters, though Latimer and Mainstream were assured that on-going discussions are being held with the Dunedin Bishop.
The background to this controversy is a series of moves by Anglicans in America and Canada to act unilaterally on same-sex blessings and the ordination of candidates in same-sex relationships, despite repeated warnings from the rest of the Anglican Communion that this could lead to a split. Similar unilateral actions by New Zealand Bishops will only heighten this crisis.
Due to the inadequate response from the New Zealand Bishops, the Latimer Fellowship and Mainstream have been compelled to write to the Archbishop of Canterbury and other bishops throughout the Anglican Communion requesting their assistance.
“We want them to know that the actions of one bishop in New Zealand do not have the support or agreement of all the New Zealand Anglican Church” said Rosemary Behan, an Anglican laywoman in the Christchurch Diocese and a member of the Latimer Fellowship. “We are requesting the Archbishop of Canterbury’s help and intervention so that the Anglican Church in New Zealand do not offend their brothers and sisters in Christ, throughout the world.” she said.
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