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The Church of England is the established Christian church in England. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain by the 3rd century and to the 6th-century Gregorian mission to Kent led by Augustine of Canterbury. Its adherents are called Anglicans.
Since the 1990s, the Anglican Communion has struggled with controversy regarding homosexuality in the church. In 1998, the 13th Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops passed a resolution "rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture". However, this is not legally binding. "Like all Lambeth Conference resolutions, it is not legally binding on all provinces of the Communion, including the Church of England, though it commends an essential and persuasive view of the attitude of the Communion." "Anglican national churches in Brazil, South Africa, South India, New Zealand and Canada have taken steps toward approving and celebrating same-sex relationships amid strong resistance among other national churches within the 80 million-member global body. The Episcopal Church in the U.S. has allowed same-sex marriage since 2015, and the Scottish Episcopal Church has allowed same-sex marriage since 2017." In 2017, clergy within the Church of England indicated their inclination towards supporting same-sex marriage by dismissing a bishops' report that explicitly asserted the exclusivity of church weddings to unions between a man and a woman. At General Synod in 2019, the Church of England announced that same-gender couples may remain recognised as married after one spouse experiences a gender transition. In 2023, the Church of England announced that it would authorise "prayers of thanksgiving, dedication and for God's blessing for same-sex couples."
The Anglican Church of Australia, formerly known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania, is a Christian church in Australia and an autonomous church of the Anglican Communion. It is the second largest church in Australia after the Catholic Church. According to the 2016 census, 3.1 million Australians identify as Anglicans. As of 2016, the Anglican Church of Australia had more than 3 million nominal members and 437,880 active baptised members. For much of Australian history since the arrival of the First Fleet in January 1788, the church was the largest religious denomination. It remains today one of the largest providers of social welfare services in Australia.
Upper Island Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador is a town in Newfoundland and Labrador. It is located in Division 1, Newfoundland and Labrador census division. It is north east of Bay Roberts. The Way office was established in 1864. The population was 942 in 1940; 1,346 in 1951, 1,563 in 1956, and 1762 in 1966. As of 2021, the population is 1,401.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Nunavut since 20 July 2005. The Canadian territory began granting marriage licences to same-sex couples upon the passage of the federal Civil Marriage Act. In October 2003, Premier Paul Okalik announced that same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions would be legally recognized in Nunavut.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Newfoundland and Labrador since December 21, 2004, when the province was ordered by the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador to issue marriage licences to same-sex couples. This decision followed similar cases in seven other provinces and territories, and pre-dated by seven months the federal Civil Marriage Act of 2005, which legalised same-sex marriage throughout Canada. Newfoundland and Labrador was the eighth jurisdiction in Canada to legalise same-sex marriage, and the eleventh worldwide.
The Anglican Church of Canada is the province of the Anglican Communion in Canada. The official French-language name is l'Église anglicane du Canada. In 2022, the Anglican Church counted 294,931 members on parish rolls in 1,978 congregations, organized into 1,498 parishes. The 2021 Canadian census counted 1,134,315 self-identified Anglicans, making the Anglican Church the third-largest Canadian church after the Catholic Church and the United Church of Canada.
The blessing or wedding of same-sex marriages and same-sex unions is an issue about which leaders of Christian churches are in ongoing disagreement. Traditionally, Christianity teaches that homosexual acts are sinful and that holy matrimony can only exist between two persons of different sexes. These disagreements are primarily centred on the interpretation of various scripture passages related to homosexuality, sacred tradition, and in some churches on varying understandings of homosexuality in terms of psychology, genetics and other scientific data. While numerous church bodies have widely varying practices and teachings, individual Christians of every major tradition are involved in practical (orthopraxy) discussions about how to respond to the issue.
The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist is an Anglican cathedral located in the city of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The church is considered to be the mother church for Anglicans in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Anglican Diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador is one of seven dioceses of the Ecclesiastical Province of Canada in the Anglican Church of Canada. As of 2012 the diocese had 50,000 members in 81 congregations organised in 35 parishes. The most widely spread parish has thirteen congregations.
The Diocese of Central Newfoundland is part of the Anglican Church of Canada and was brought about by The Restructuring of the Diocese of Newfoundland Act, 1975. The Diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador and the Diocese of Western Newfoundland were also part of the restructuring of the previous Diocese of Newfoundland into three dioceses. Based on the last available information from 2022, the diocese has an Anglican population of 9,375 souls on the rolls of 27 parishes, with 18 paid priests in parish ministry, one unpaid priest, two paid deacons, and six unpaid deacons.
The Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island is a diocese of the Ecclesiastical Province of Canada of the Anglican Church of Canada. It encompasses the provinces of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island and has two cathedrals: All Saints' in Halifax and St. Peter's in Charlottetown. Its de facto see city is Halifax, and its roughly 24 400 Anglicans distributed in 239 congregations are served by approximately 153 clergy and 330 lay readers according to the last available data. According to the 2001 census, 120,315 Nova Scotians identified themselves as Anglicans, while 6525 Prince Edward Islanders did the same.
The Diocese of Qu'Appelle in the Anglican Church of Canada lies in the southern third of the civil province of Saskatchewan and contains within its geographical boundaries some 50 per cent of the province's population of one million.
The Diocese of Toronto is an administrative division of the Anglican Church of Canada covering the central part of southern Ontario. It was founded in 1839 and is the oldest of the seven dioceses comprising the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario. It has the most members of any Anglican diocese in Canada. It is also one of the biggest Anglican dioceses in the Americas in terms of numbers of parishioners, clergy and parishes. As of 2018, the diocese has around 230 congregations and ministries in 183 parishes, with approximately 54,000 Anglicans identified on parish rolls.
The Anglican realignment is a movement among some Anglicans to align themselves under new or alternative oversight within or outside the Anglican Communion. This movement is primarily active in parts of the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada. Two of the major events that contributed to the movement were the 2002 decision of the Diocese of New Westminster in Canada to authorise a rite of blessing for same-sex unions, and the nomination of two openly gay priests in 2003 to become bishops. Jeffrey John, an openly gay priest with a long-time partner, was appointed to be the next Bishop of Reading in the Church of England and the General Convention of the Episcopal Church ratified the election of Gene Robinson, an openly gay non-celibate man, as Bishop of New Hampshire. Jeffrey John ultimately declined the appointment due to pressure.
The ordination of lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender (LGBT) clergy who are open about their sexuality or gender identity; are sexually active if lesbian, gay, or bisexual; or are in committed same-sex relationships is a debated practice within some contemporary Christian denominations.
The Anglican Church of Canada is the third largest church in Canada, after the Roman Catholic Church and the United Church of Canada. After many years of debate, the first blessing of a same-sex partnership took place in 2003, by the Diocese of New Westminster, in Vancouver. This was not considered a marriage ceremony, but rather a blessing of "permanent and faithful commitments" between persons of the same sex.
Donald Frederick Harvey is a Canadian Anglican bishop. He was the Moderator Bishop and director of the Anglican Network in Canada, a founding diocese of the Anglican Church in North America, from 2009 to 2014, and the Director of Anglican Essentials Canada. He was previously the Bishop of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador in the Anglican Church of Canada from 1993 to 2004.
John Organ is the Canadian Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of Western Newfoundland. He was elected to serve as bishop in June 2018.
References
- 1 2 Elliot, Neil (15 March 2024). "Dioceses of the ACC – by numbers". Numbers Matters. (Neil Elliot is the statistics officer for the Anglican Church of Canada.). Retrieved 17 March 2024.
- ↑ Diocesan website
- ↑ http://www.province-canada.anglican.org/synod2012/Western%20Report%202012.pdf Archived 2016-03-05 at the Wayback Machine (accessed 28 April 2015)
- ↑ "Anglican Diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador affirms same-sex marriage | Globalnews.ca". Global News. Retrieved 2023-08-23.
- ↑ "Western Newfoundland Anglican Church to allow performing of same-sex marriage". CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. September 7, 2019. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
The Anglican Church in western Newfoundland is moving forward with performing same-sex marriages despite a vote in July by the Anglican Church of Canada where it voted against the motion during its general assembly. 75 per cent of the general synod had voted in favour to pass the motion for the Anglican Church of Canada to allow for same-sex marriages to be performed, but the vote was defeated in the House of Bishops.
