General Synod passed a resolution June 29 endorsing an open letter to the Canadian government from the Queer Interfaith Coalition, an organization which supports LGBTQ+ acceptance across different religious groups, which says it is “reclaiming the religious voice from those who have sought to weaponize faith [against the 2SLGBTQIA+ community].” The motion passed after some debate surrounding a clause denouncing “the damaging heresy that some people are more deserving of equality than others.” This statement, said an amendment members added to the resolution, would not be understood to condemn Christians who do not believe Scripture permits same-sex marriages.
Canon Andrea Brennan of the diocese of Kootenay, a founding member of the coalition, described the resolution as an extension of the Anglican Church of Canada’s existing efforts to “throw open the doors of welcome” to LGBTQ people. She went on to read the letter aloud in full, her voice swelling with emotion at several points.
The letter itself states a belief that all LGBTQ+ people are created in the divine image. It says it is time to advocate more strongly for LGBTQ+ people’s human rights and says doing so is in step with the tenets of the various faiths of those who sign it. It goes on to denounce the historic harms caused by misinformation, disinformation and hate speech. And it asserts that the shared duty of the signatories’ religions is “advocating for the full and comprehensive human rights of all members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community; promoting mental health, realizing the rights of 2SLGBTQIA+ children and youth, and ending gender-based violence.” Signatories commit to building religious communities that safeguard these “sacred tenets of intersectional equity.”
Many members of General Synod spoke in favour of the letter, including Alicia Sandham of the diocese of Algoma. She said she believed the wording of the resolution, which encouraged Anglicans to sign the letter, was open-ended enough that people who “may not be in support of the full inclusion of 2SLGBTQIA+ people in their parishes” could either not be a part of it or engage in whatever way they were comfortable. Bishop Kevin Robertson of the diocese of Toronto likewise said there was a need for the church to stand up for LGBTQ rights at a time of growing backlash and diminishing support. And Finn Keesmaat-Walsh of the diocese of Toronto, who uses they/them pronouns, spoke of the wariness they had seen about religious people in LGBTQ spaces as a result of past harms the church had done. This was a chance to rebuild some trust, they said.
Hanna Wygiera of the diocese of Calgary, meanwhile, raised a question about the line about heresy. “If what is meant by this phrase is that the traditional view on marriage and sexuality is heretical, what does that say to some of our ecumenical partners such as the Roman Catholic Church?” she asked. “Are we calling all disagreeing parties heretics?”
Several more members added their own concerns about the use of the term “heresy,” of which Bishop Alexander Pryor of the diocese of the Arctic of said he could find no agreed-upon definition in the church’s canons or declaration of principles. Synod did not have the power to amend a letter written by an outside institution, he said, and should take care before endorsing the use of a strong, divisive, undefined term lest it be quoted in future discussions as a precedent of its own.
The Rev. Jon Martin of the diocese of Ottawa weighed in on the question about the term as well, saying, “If there is anything we do as a church that causes the visible and measurable harm to marginalised and vulnerable people—and I speak for myself—I’m exceptionally comfortable calling that dangerous heresy.”
In response to these concerns, the Bishop Osborn, suffragan of the diocese of the Arctic, and Wygiera moved an amendment. This stated that General Synod would not understand the letter to contradict “A Word to the Church,” and that the word “heresy” “must not be interpreted as a condemnation of those Christians who do not believe Scripture permits Holy Matrimony for same-sex couple[s].” “A Word to the Church” is a document, written by church leaders and adopted by General Synod in 2019, on the history of and issues involved in the Anglican Church of Canada’s marriage canon debate, which affirms that members of the church are called to stand together as one despite their differences in beliefs about same-sex marriages. It also affirms that Anglicans may hold a variety of beliefs about same sex marriages and that church must respect the self-determination of Indigenous communities in particular.
Osborn emphasized this last point, telling Synod that while he was thankful the open letter condemned hatred toward the LGBTQ community, the statement on heresy remained a problem. He and Indigenous people in the church have previously been accused of holding the belief that some people are more deserving of equality than others due to their understanding of marriage, he said. “The open letter seeks not to weaponize faith, but the use of the word ‘heresy’ does weaponize faith against a different group of people,” he said. “For that reason, I cannot support this particular statement.”
Osborn’s fellow Arctic bishop, Bishop Annie Ittoshat, added that at 2019’s General Synod, where the church last voted on same-sex marriage, she and other Indigenous members had felt many attacks were levelled against them for standing firm in their beliefs. She was troubled by the language of heresy because it seemed to continue to promote that attitude, she said. “I feel it’s not our place to say such a thing as heresy and I see our body as one in Christ,” she said.
The Rev. Caleb Sangoya, an Inuit priest from the diocese of the Arctic, said he was neither opposed to nor in support of what was being said. But he shared a piece of the story of Arctic explorer John Franklin, who died with his crew after they abandoned their icebound ships during an 1847 expedition. Frankling, Sangoya said, had no interest in learning from or paying attention to the Inuit. Without knowledge he might have learned from the Inuit about Arctic survival, he said, Franklin left and never came back. Likewise, he said, if the people of the North were not with the Anglican Church of Canada, and if it stopped following the Bible, it too would be lost.
“No one is to be hated,” he said, neither LGBTQ+ people nor those supporting them. “I love them all, everybody in the world, because God loves all of you in the world,” he concluded.
In response to the proposal of the amendment, Brennan told General Synod the term was not intended to refer to differences on the marriage canon. “It’s not about marriage. It’s not about whether you’re on the 2SLGBTQIA+ spectrum. The matter [is] of the heresy of division, that one group is more deserving than another.”
The amendment carried 184 votes to 30, and the resolution itself passed 174 to 37.
