Anglican Church of Canada delegates voted Wednesday night to delay action for three years on whether to authorize dioceses to provide blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples.
But in a surprise move, liberal delegates asked the church to "affirm the integrity and sanctity of committed adult same sex relationships" whether or not formal blessing rituals occur.
Action on that measure was delayed until Thursday. But voting on the procedural motion indicated that it could pass, a result that will possibly spark a controversy.
World Anglicanism is already severely split over homosexuality, particularly the consecration of an openly gay bishop by the Episcopal Church in the United States.
Whatever the meeting decides, it seemed unlikely to prevent future blessing rituals in the New Westminster (Vancouver area) diocese, which went ahead on its own two years ago. But the decision might prevent other dioceses from doing the same.
The delay on formal blessing rituals was designed to defuse tension, at least temporarily. The proposal originally put on the floor would have allowed a "local option," under which each diocese would have been authorized to decide whether to provide rituals.
Hours before the debate began, the authors of the local option proposal withdrew it in favor of a substitute that was approved. It calls for a two-year study of whether same-sex rituals are "a matter of doctrine" and delay of decision until the next national legislative meeting in 2007.
That motion was approved by 142 to 118 among clergy and lay delegates, and 22 to 12 among bishops.
During debate, delegates had expressed concern about the impact that a green light for local blessing ceremonies would have on the Canadian church -- and internationally in the 77 million-member Anglican Communion of which it's a part.
If the 2007 meeting decides the same-sex blessing issue is a matter of doctrine, or central church teaching, but still wants to allow such unions, that would require amendment of church law at two consecutive meetings -- further delaying any approval until at least 2010.
The original motion, and the rewrite calling for delay, were both the work of Robert Falby, lay lawyer for the Toronto Diocese, and Bishop Fred Hiltz of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
"The unity of the church requires deferral," Falby told delegates.
But his own bishop, Terence Finlay, then protested that any delay would cast gay and lesbian parishioners "in a wilderness of secrecy and hypocrisy. I can't ask them to wait any longer."
Earlier in the day, Montreal's liberal Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, who will be installed as new national leader of the denomination Friday, signaled his support for delay during a surprise visit to a rally by Anglican Essentials, a coalition of those opposing church approval for same-sex behavior.
"It's going to need time yet before the mind of the church and the mind of Christ become evident," Hutchison told the conservatives. Reaching out to church members to his right, Hutchison also said that as leader, or primate, his responsibility is to "hold together this family."
Anglican Essentials had commissioned a lawyers' report contending that because same-sex marriage involves doctrine, the local option plan violated church law.
The conservative runner-up to Hutchison in Monday's primate election, Bishop Ronald Ferris of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, said delegates were "backing away from the brink" on blessing rituals.
The local option idea had been endorsed by a council of national church leaders for submission here.
Ferris and other conservatives said the Canadians' caution was influenced by the nasty split on the gay issue in the U.S. Episcopal Church.
Another factor, they said, was a warning last weekend from the London-based secretary of a special commission seeking a way to hold world Anglicanism together despite the split over gay-related issues. Canon Gregory Cameron told delegates a go-ahead here would make the commission's work "horribly complicated."
"The implications of your decision for the unity of the Anglican Communion, perhaps even its very survival in its current form, are just about as serious as it could get," Cameron said.
Bishop William Anderson of Prince Rupert, British Columbia, said another reason to wait was that the nation's bishops have been unable to agree on a "safety net" plan for visiting bishops to lead parishes that would disagree with liberal dioceses' policy.