Why ‘check in with the Pharisees’?

Re: Don’t change canon, says commission (Feb. 2015, p.1). Somehow the world did not end in 2005 when the Canadian government made it the law of the land that same-sex couples could marry and have all the rights and protection of marriage afforded heterosexual couples. We were only one of four countries in the world that truly recognized equal protection under the law for any citizen or resident to marry the person of his/her choice. We are a country that prides itself on our diversity and liberal social policies.

Ten years later, the Anglican Church of Canada keeps tiptoeing around the issue and hiding under the skirt of the worldwide Anglican Communion with the excuse that the Communion—not the Anglican Church of Canada—should decide if the marriage canon should allow same-sex marriages. I’m sure there is high concern that allowing gays or lesbians to marry would divide the church within Canada, as did the issue of ordaining women in the U.S.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I do not believe Christ checked in with the Pharisees or Pontius Pilate to see if his actions would upset the status quo. I’m fairly certain he did not get their encouragement or approval to continue with his ministry. I believe all of Christ’s teachings can be boiled down to his golden rule: treat each other as we would wish to be treated. Withholding the right of the sanctity of marriage from the gay and lesbian members of our church is in direct conflict to that teaching. The church needs to practice what it preaches and offer the blessings of the sacrament of marriage to all who seek it, regardless of whose prejudices and sensibilities they may offend.

Peter Pook
Mississauga, Ont.