Priest to lose
licence over SSM stance
Solange De Samtis.
from anglicanjournal.com on the Web, March 11, 2007
CANADA -- Rev. Shawn Sanford
Beck, an Anglican priest in the diocese of Saskatoon, was to have his marriage
licence suspended after March 31 if he did not reconsider his declaration that
he intends to marry gay couples, if asked, said diocesan bishop Rodney Andrews.
“(Mr. Beck’s) right to his views on same-sex marriage are not called into
question,” Bishop Andrews said in a statement. “Shawn has declared his
intention to step outside the guidelines and requirements of our church at this
time. I have encouraged him to reconsider … I am unable to give permission
for him to perform same-sex marriages. I have offered to extend his
licence beyond March 31 if he is willing to refrain from performing same-sex
marriages,”
If Mr. Beck’s licence is withdrawn, he will still be a priest, but may not
perform such priestly duties as baptisms and communion services unless he
receives special permission, said Bishop Andrews in an interview at a church
meeting in Mississauga, Ont. “This is not a disciplinary action,” he
added.
The action would mean Mr. Beck would lose his job as director of ministry at a
Lutheran mission in downtown Saskatoon that serves aboriginal people, he said in
an interview. “We do a weekly sacred circle (service), a weekly community
meal, street ministry and advocacy and we’re getting funding for an aboriginal
minister,” he said. Under the terms of the 2001 Full Communion agreement
between the Anglican Church of Canada and Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada,
priests must be in good standing with their denomination to serve in the other’s
church.
“This is a matter between him and his Anglican bishop and I will deal with the
results. I think it is regrettable. He’s been doing wonderful work.
We will be very sorry to lose him,” said Bishop Cindy Halmarson of the Lutheran
church’s Saskatoon-based Saskatchewan synod. However, she added, the issue
of same-sex relationships will be considered in June at both churches’ national
conventions and should be decided by a church as a whole, not by individuals.
In early February, Mr. Beck wrote “an open letter” which said that the Anglican
church’s ban on same-sex marriages and blessing ceremonies “is theologically
problematic and fundamentally unjust.” In the interview, he said his views
had been forming for quite a while but were solidified when a gay couple in a
long-term relationship came to him last November, asking for a blessing
ceremony. Mr. Beck is chaplain to the Saskatoon chapter of Integrity, a
support group for gay Anglicans.
“I would rather have waited (to express his views) until (the) General Synod
(national convention),” he said, but the couple’s request caused him to act.
As for his personal circumstances, “it’ll be tight but we won’t starve,” said
Mr. Beck, whose wife, Janice, works at Saskatoon’s Child Hunger and Education
Program. They have two young children.
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