Anglican Church of Canada takes step toward allowing same-sex weddings

In the first step of a two-step process, Canada’s Anglican Church voted to amend its rules to allow clergy to celebrate same-sex marriages.

The General Synod will vote again on the measure at its next gathering in 2019. If it passes, the Canadian church will join the Episcopal Church, which formally approved marriage ceremonies regardless of gender in 2015. As a consequence, the Anglican Communion placed temporary restrictions on the Episcopal Church.

At first it appeared that more than 200 delegates attending the General Synod meeting north of Toronto had voted to reject same-sex marriage by a single vote. It was later discovered that the electronic voting system had miscoded a vote. The revised tally showed that the measure passed.