New primate keeps mum about blessings vote

Leanne Larmondin
Editor, Anglican Journal
Jun 22, 2007
Winnipeg

In his first news conference as primate-elect, Fred Hiltz declined to declare his own position on whether the church should allow same-gender couples to have their relationships blessed.

Secular and church media, both from Canada and overseas, tried to pin the primate-elect down on where he stood on the controversial issue which is scheduled to be debated – and perhaps decided – by General Synod on June 23.

But Bishop Hiltz would only voice his support for the "synodical process," or the church’s legal procedures, adding that he believed that the church needed to follow its processes and listen to the recommendations both of the Canadian church’s St. Michael Report (which examined the issue of whether same-sex blessings were a matter of doctrine) and the international Windsor Report, which recommended ways of keeping the Anglican Communion together in spite of deep divisions.

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