Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, warns against bullying in Toronto before the vote on same-sex marriage on July 11. (CNS photo/Francois Gloutnay, Presence)

The Anglican Church of Canada said yes to a same-sex marriage proposal after a voting error was discovered. The announcement made on July 12 came less than 24 hours after it was thought participants in the church's General Synod rejected the motion.

The Anglican Church of Canada now has three years to think about the implications of this vote, as the proposition will need to pass a second reading at the next General Synod in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2019.

Anglicans in Canada had talked about the possibility of moving toward gay marriages instead of staying with a regime in which civil same-sex unions had the possibility to be blessed by an Anglican priest, but were in no way considered to be a sacred union. In the church's 2013 General Synod, the delegates asked that a commission on the marriage canon develop a motion in favor of same-sex marriages for this July.

In order to pass, the motion needed the approval of two-thirds of all three chambers: the bishops, clergy and laity. When the results came out late on July 11, the floor of the General Synod was quiet as the 234 delegates realized that the motion failed to pass by only one vote from a member of the clergy.

The Rev. Michael Thompson, synod general secretary, announced on July 12: "We discovered that the electronic voting system we were using miscoded my electronic file. I was listed, and my vote was counted, as a layperson instead of a priest. This one vote changed the outcome of resolution A051-R2, the resolution to amend the marriage canon."

The debate on same-sex unions for the Anglicans in Canada has been bitter at times. On July 11, knowing the pre-vote discussions would be emotional, the church's primate, Archbishop Fred J. Hiltz, warned against bullying on both sides.

"This kind of behavior is not appropriate. It's unacceptable," he said. "We are all the body of Christ."

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Catholic priests will now be able to celebrate Mass “for the care of creation.”
A community gathers in resistance. Photo by Dany Díaz Mejía. Photo courtesy of Rene Aleman Resistance Camp.
“We are alive only through the grace of God. At one point, I got messages saying someone had offered 1 million lempiras [$38,000] to have me killed.”
Dany Díaz MejíaJuly 02, 2025
Workers unload food commodities from Catholic Relief Services and USAID in the village of Behera, near Tulear, Madagascar, Oct. 22, 2016. (OSV News Photo/Nancy McNally, Catholic Relief Services)
The end of U.S.A.I.D. will result in the loss of a “staggering” 14 million lives by 2030, including the deaths of 4.5 million children under age 5.
Kevin ClarkeJuly 02, 2025
Homily for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, by Father Terrance Klein
Terrance KleinJuly 02, 2025