Homosexuality: The Official Word

The full, verbatim text of the Canadian House of Bishop's resolution
regarding the subject of homosexuality in the church

The following is the most current statement by the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada. It is dated 1979. No topic has been more studied and researched by the Bishops than the subject of homosexuality. This is the present statement that governs this issue in the Anglican Church of Canada. At the 1992 General Synod, members asked the bishops to review their position. At the 1995 General Synod, the Bishops updated the church on their study and said it was still under review.

"Questions of human sexuality are a matter of great concern to the Church of our day. Prominent amongst these concerns is the attitude of the Church towards homosexual persons. While homosexuality is a very complex and involved issue, nevertheless, in response to specific questions directed to the Anglican Church of Canada, we have decided that a statement is needed at this time.

"We believe as Christians that homosexual persons as children of God, have a full and equal claim, with all other persons, upon the love, acceptance, concern and pastoral care of the Church. The gospel of Jesus Christ compels Christians to guard against all forms of human injustice and to affirm that all persons are brothers and sisters for whom Christ died. We affirm that homosexual persons are entitled to equal protection under the law with all other Canadian citizens.

"It is clear from Holy Scripture that only the sexual union of male and female can find expression within the convenant of Holy Matrimony. In the heart of biblical teaching about creation we discover insights into the nature and purpose of sexuality. Rooted in God's creative purpose is the fulfilment and completion of male and female in eath other, together with the procreative function of sexuality. Thus the Church confines its nuptial blessing to heterosexual marriages, and we cannot authorize our clergy to bless homosexual unions. We are aware that some homosexuals develop for themselves relationships of mutual support, help and comfort, about which the Church must show an appropriate concern. Such relationships, though, must not be confused with Holy Matrimony, and the Church must do nothing which appears to support any such suggestion."

Just before General Synod 1992, the Bishops prepared and released this clarification of their points:

Our present and future considerations about homosexuality should be pursued within the larger study of human sexuality in its totality:

1. We accept all persons, regardless of sexual orientation, as equal before God; our acceptance of persons with homosexual orientation is not an acceptance of homosexual activity
2. We do not accept the blessing of homosexual unions
3. We will not call in question the ordination of a person who has shared with the bishop his/her homosexual orientation if there has been a commitment to the bishop to abstain from sexual acts with persons of the same sex as a part of the requirement for ordination.