Here is what VOL learned. When the Synod members broke up into small discussion groups, some members complained about being "intimidated" and "harassed." Archbishop Fred Hiltz spoke against harassment tactics, but the victims weren't identified. It wasn't until later that the identity of the "harassed" was made public. Those bishops and their delegates from the orthodox dioceses of Caledonia, Yukon, and the Arctic, because of their opposition to same-sex marriage, were identified as the victims.

After the decision was made in favor of changing the marriage canons to allow same-sex marriage, some of the clerics on the winning side had their daggers out for those who voted against the majority. This does not bode well for continued unity in the Anglican Communion in Canada.

Even as the vote results were being announced, several bishops and their delegates walked out of the proceedings, including the bishops of Caledonia and the Arctic. The dioceses of Caledonia, Yukon, and the Arctic have always been conservative, evangelical leaning. (Readers of VIRTUEONLINE may remember Archbishop Terry Buckle of the Yukon, whom New Westminster Bishop, Michael Ingham, threatened with disciplinary action for supporting St. John's, Shaughnessy, when it broke away from the Diocese of New Westminster).

It is going to be interesting to see what the impact of this vote will mean for the Northern Canadian dioceses, as many of their people are Indigenous folks, who clearly stated their opposition to same-sex marriage. As one native delegate said: "God didn't create Adam and Steve. He created Adam and Eve."

There is a ton of irony here. The Canadian Anglican Church has been lobbying for years for First Nation's rights. However, the Indigenous folks see the Anglican Church of Canada's insistence on pushing for same-sex marriage, as another form of ugly European colonialism!

So now the Anglican Church of Canada has painted itself into a corner. Native Americans oppose same-sex marriage as a Western behavior not approved by them, their understanding of the faith or their culture. Ironically, they happen to stand with the vast swathe of African Anglicans, who also bitterly oppose Western imposed pansexual behaviors and see the West pushing its behavior onto them, manipulating them with dollars to conform and withholding money if they don't conform. They also face a backlash from Islam.

So, the big question is, how will this vote and its consequences play out in ecumenical circles and in other Anglican jurisdictions?

We do know that both the Orthodox Churches of the East and the Roman Catholic Church will never accept this vote, thus making a complete mockery of ARCIC talks, which should have been cancelled decades ago.

An informed source also told VOL that at this recent Synod, the Anglican Church of Canada officially dropped "Pray for the conversion of the Jews." It has not been in use for years, but it has just now been officially eradicated. No doubt the ACoC would rescind any attempt to convert Muslims to Christ either. Is it any wonder that the Nones have no interest in the ACoC. No distinctive gospel, no proclamation of salvation, no hope of eternal life. No future. Numbers wise, the ACoC is falling like a rock.

Canadian Anglican blogger, David of Samizdat, noted this statement from ACoC General Secretary, Michael Thompson, who released a statement on what went wrong on the first count of the marriage canon vote.

Here is the core of his message: It was at that point that 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. Initially, we thought that it had been miscoded as a lay vote, rather than as a clergy vote. We have since been provided, by Mr. Copeland, the list from which the electronic voting was coded, a list prepared by my office. That list described the General Secretary as "clergy, non-voting". Data-on-the-spot simply coded the information that my office gave them. This error took place in my office, and I take responsibility for it. We were more than well-served by Data-on-the-spot. In fact, without Mr. Copeland's prompt attention, I am not sure that we would have discovered the nature of the error and had a chance to understand and correct it.

"Thompson is telling us that his vote was "overlooked" because he was categorized as a non-voting member of synod.

"The computerized voting system was supplied by Data on the Spot. For an idea of how the system works, take a look at the video here. http://dataonthespot.com/electronic-voting/ You will note that 'each clicker device has a unique and secure serial number'. That means that the data gathering program would have, as part of its input, a database of serial numbers correlating to each person's name.

"Thompson is claiming that he was designated (and, therefore, his clicker was designated) in the database as a non-voting member of synod. Any computer program worth anything would immediately flag this as an error as soon as the non-voting member used his secure clicker in an attempt to vote. The marriage canon vote was at the end of the synod. How many times had Thompson already used the clicker before this in other votes? Why was the error not flagged before the marriage canon vote? Either the Data on the Spot programmers have some serious problems with missing error routines in their computer code or..... there is something very fishy going on."

There should be a thorough third party audit of the whole process.

When VOL asked what impact the voting might have on The Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) a diocese in the Anglican Church in North America and part of the global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans which affirms the Jerusalem Declaration, VOL was told that there did not seem to be any interest in those three dioceses joining the ANiC.

It should be noted that while a number of liberal and revisionist diocese will now go ahead and perform same-sex marriages (which several said they would do regardless of how the Synod voted), canon law won't change until the 2019 vote.

One bishop, considered a conservative, is Michael W. Hawkins, the current Bishop of Saskatchewan. He is on record as saying that the differences on the issue of sexuality should not get in the way of the greater commonalities that unite Anglicans. www.anglicanjournal.com/articles/-we-need-each-other "The bishops of the diocese of Saskatchewan have said that even though they do not support changing the marriage canon to allow for the marriage of same-sex couples, they will work for unity regardless of the vote's outcome. What unites us is our faith and commitment to Jesus Christ. While these disagreements are painful and distressing, we need each other."

Another source told VOL that there seems to be concerted efforts to more tightly tie the (mostly small, northern, poor) conservative dioceses to the ACoC, as many of these dioceses receive significant dollars from the ACoC. See www.anglicanjournal.com/articles/northern-dioceses-enjoying-upsurge-in-partnerships-with-south

"I also believe that the "frog" has been in the "water" too long to jump out even though the water is now nearly boiling," said the source.

END