Canadian Anglicans eye split over same-sex unions

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, June 23 (Reuters) Bonnie Crawford-Bewley points to a photo pinned to a tack board to help explain why she cares deeply about a vote by the Anglican Church of Canada this weekend on blessing gay unions.

Both Crawford-Bewley and her wife Michelle are beaming in the family snapshot, taken after their daughter Tiana, 8, was baptized by Crawford-Bewley's father, a retired Anglican priest.

The couple had their relationship blessed in a non-Anglican church 17 years ago, but Crawford-Bewley said she is still bothered that her beloved Anglican Church is torn over whether to bless same-sex unions.

''Marriage is an important institution, and the church not being willing to bless our union and not being willing to marry us is very much making us second-class citizens,'' said Crawford-Bewley, 45.

''It's that constantly being told 'You're not good enough' that needs to stop,'' she said in an interview on the sidelines of the Canadian church's general synod, its highest decision-making body.

The 300-member synod, which meets every three years, will decide this weekend whether to allow Canadian churches to have the option to bless same-sex unions.

It's an issue that has put the worldwide Anglican Communion at risk of breaking in two, and the results from Canada are being closely watched around the globe.

Canada is one of the few countries in the world that has legalized gay marriage, although churches are not compelled to perform the ceremonies.

Canadian Anglicans on both sides of the issue agree the vote is too close to call, and say the decision could be deferred because there is little common ground.

Orthodox Anglicans believe sex outside of heterosexual marriage is contrary to Biblical teachings.

''There's not a middle ground, if something is either sin or holy,'' said Rev. Charlie Masters, a parish priest from Milton, Ontario, who works with Anglican Essentials, an orthodox group.

''It's not just, 'Let's all get along,'' Masters said, hand resting on a well-worn Bible.

If the church condones gay blessings, it will split members and put itself at odds with the global church, Masters said.

''The Anglican Church of Canada will be separating itself from the Bible, and will be kind of adrift,'' Masters said.

''Really, the culture will be setting the tone and the content of what we do,'' he said.

A Toronto parish has said it will continue to bless same-sex couples, no matter what the synod's decision, and another priest has refused to perform any weddings until the church allows the rite of marriage for gay couples.

There are about 640,000 Anglicans in Canada, making it a relatively small branch of the 77 million worldwide Anglican Communion, which is dominated by the more conservative ''Global South'' of Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Anglican leaders gave the US Episcopal Church a September deadline to stop blessing same-sex unions, and to declare a moratorium on consecrating openly gay bishops.

Some disaffected US churches have put themselves under the jurisdiction of conservative bishops in Africa and elsewhere.

If Canadian Anglicans vote to allow same-sex blessings, a group of parishes has already indicated it will align itself with more orthodox Anglicans outside the country.

REUTERS GP PM1033