Bishop Michael Ingham, whose diocese – New Westminster – voted to allow same-sex blessings in 2002, reacted strongly to the WCG’s proposals, describing it as “an old-world institutional response to a new-world reality in which people are being set free from hatred and violence.”Notice how Ingham insinuates that we who do not believe that the Holy Spirit is leading the church in this direction are not only keeping homosexual people mired in hatred and violence but are irrationaly prejudiced bigots. I find that offensive.
Bishop Ingham said that if the proposal for a moratorium on same-sex blessings is adopted, “it will put the Anglican Church of Canada in the position of having to support and defend irrational prejudice and bigotry in the eyes of our nation.”
George Elliott, suffragan bishop of Toronto (York-Simcoe), had this to say,
“I don’t think there’s a going back. I think there are ways in which we can perhaps slow down or continue to consider what a moratorium might be. But I don’t think it’s possible to go back. I don’t think it’s fair to go back.” He said that dioceses that have moved ahead “and done it faithfully,” have done it in the context of Canadian church polity. “It would be absolutely devastating to even think about moving back to where we were before.”In other words, the context of Canadian church polity trumps Scriptural, traditional and reasonable theological contexts.
Bishop Victoria Matthews of the Windsor Continuation Group and the new Bishop of Christchurch, New Zelaand, sums it up well,
“I don’t think they actually mean ‘can’t,’ I think they actually mean ‘won’t,” she said. “It’s not physically impossible to change that. I can understand if they say they don’t want to.”It's all here.
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