Recount Shows YES Vote for Anglican Church of Canada General Synod 2016 on Marriage Canon In an astonishing turn of events, the Anglican Church of Canada’s General Synod 2016 has approved same-sex marriage, the day after they had appeared to reject it.
among the laity”.
This happened because of a mistake in coding the electronic voting system, based on information supplied by the church, which did not record the vote of the General Secretary, the Ven. Dr. Michael Thompson. He was down as “clergy, nonvoting”, whereas, in fact, the General Secretary had cast his vote in favour of the motion. He had originally thought that his vote wasn’t counted because he was mistakenly down as a lay person.
[…] After a period of some consternation, the Primate in his role as president of General Synod verbally reviewed the chancellor’s new information. Based on that information, he declared that the motion had received, in all three orders, the majority required by the constitution, and that the motion had been passed”.
He explained yesterday: “The events leading to the passage, at first reading, of a motion to amend the Canon on Marriage so as to provide for the solemnization in the church of samesex marriages are complex. On July 11, the motion was declared defeated in the order of clergy, where it appeared not to have achieved the necessary two-thirds majority in that order. The actual numbers recorded electronically were 51 in favour and 26 opposed. The motion did achieve that majority among the bishops and 92 EILE Magazine
“[…] Mr. Copeland, the person supporting the electronic voting, discovered that it was in fact my own vote as General Secretary that had been overlooked in the electronic count.
The resolution has changed the wording of the canon on marriage, now allowing all those who are ‘duly qualified by civil law’ to enter into marriage, rather than only ‘a man and a woman’. The full text of the resolution is below: General Synod 2016 Resolution Resolution Number A051-R2 Subject: Amendment to Canon XXI (On Marriage in the Church) Moved by: The Ven. Harry Huskins Seconded by: Ms. Cynthia Haines-Turner