Letter to the editor: How important is marriage to Anglicans, anyway ?

Notes: "The marriage debate has gotten out of hand ('Mixed views about the marriage canon report', March 2016, p. 6). .... It is utterly bizarre that in dioceses like my own [Montreal] -- where the bishop permits -- our priests can perform the full religious rites of marriage ... to all civilly married couples alike, or refer same-gender couples to a Lutheran pastor for a simultaneous civil and canonical marriage -- and yet until Canon XXI is amended. they cannot solemnize the marriages of same-gender couples in their capacity as deputized provincial marriage registrars. A recent court ruling here in Quebec has clarified that ministers of religion are permitted but not obliged to register marriages they celebrate as acts of civil status, and the dean of Montreal, Paul Kennington, has called for the church to 'get out of the marriage business'. Perhaps we ought to consider just how important to us it is to contract out clergy as civil servants before we enter a painful wrangle over a canon that could be left a dead letter".

Subjects: Marriage (Canon law) - Anglican Church of Canada; Marriage - Law and legislation - Canada; Same sex unions - Religious aspects - Anglican Church of Canada; Gay marriage - Religious aspects - Anglican Church of Canada; Civil marriage - Canada; Anglican Church of Canada. General Synod. Constitution. Canon XXI; Kennington, Paul (John Paul), 1961-