Anglican ex-Communion?

National | No sooner had the world's Anglican leaders issued a pastoral statement saying they "cannot support" church ceremonies blessing same-sex unions than one took place in British Columbia. | Edward E. Plowman

No sooner had the world's Anglican leaders issued a pastoral statement saying they "cannot support" church ceremonies blessing same-sex unions than one took place in British Columbia.

Some of the 38 Anglican primates were still on planes flying home from a meeting in Brazil when clergywoman Margaret Marquardt on May 28 blessed the union of two males at a church in Vancouver. A few days earlier, Bishop Michael Ingham of the 686,000-member Anglican Church of Canada had authorized six parishes in his Diocese of New Westminster to administer the rite.

Reaction to this in-your-face act came quickly. The next day, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said the diocese "has gone significantly further than the teaching of the church or pastoral concern can justify, and I very much regret the inevitable tension and division that will result."