A Canadian Anglican diocese broke rank this weekend when it voted to ease restrictions on same-sex marriage:

The Anglican diocese of Ottawa has approved blessings of same-sex marriages by a vote of 177 to 97, making it the first in Canada to support some sort of church recognition of gay marriage.

Bishop John Chapman said in a news conference yesterday after the vote that the final decision on whether to bless the marriages still rests with him, and he expects to take his time making that decision. He wants to talk to other bishops, both nationally and internationally, before going ahead with a policy.

Hopefully Chapman will stay away from England, where conservative forces are battling Archbishop Rowan Williams, who refuses to rebuke the American "restraint".

The Canadian scenario doesn't explicitly support universal gay marriage, but allows wiggle room for Bishops who wish to perform such blessings.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams faced fresh - and familiar - criticism over the American Episcopal's gay restraint. Williams, who's the spiritual leader of the international Anglican communion, refuses to come out against the American branch's decision.

Following in the footsteps of anti-gay Nigerian archbishop Peter Akinola, The Church of England's Evangelicals said they'll boycott next year's Lambeth Conference, an invite only meeting describes as the "mind of the communion":

The Archbishop of Canterbury faced further pressure over gay priests yesterday when the Church of England’s largest conservative grouping urged English bishops to boycott next year’s Lambeth Conference over the issue.

The Church of England Evangelical Council, which represents up to a quarter of the Church’s clergy, told Dr Rowan Williams that the liberal American bishops had torn the worldwide Church "almost beyond repair".

The Council, whose president is the Bishop of Lewes, the Rt Rev Wallace Benn, said it supported those English bishops who are already intending to avoid the ten-yearly gathering of Anglican bishops if the liberal Americans attend.

The Bishop of Rochester also said he'll boycott if Williams doesn't take a harsher stand against the gays.

Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams and friends accept the American Episcopal branch's gay restraint.

In a report published last night, the Joint Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion writes:

The Communion seems to be converging around a position which says that while it is inappropriate to proceed to public rites of blessing of same-sex unions and to the consecration of bishops who are living in sexual relationships outside of Christian marriage, we need to take seriously our ministry to gay and lesbian people inside the Church and the ending of discrimination, persecution and violence against them.

Not all Anglicans stand behind Williams. Besides Peter Akinola's Global South movement, which would like nothing more than queer banishment, a number of other leaders are disappointed in Williams' soft stance.

The Anglicans in limbo this morning as conservative and liberal sides debate the place of the gays. Archbishop of Canterbury and Anglican leader Rowan Williams flew to New Orleans last week in an effort to bring the American Episcopal Church in line with the international communion.

Though most people remained tight-lipped on the two-day meeting, some details are starting to leak out.

In addition to called violence against gays "inexcusable," Williams also leaned left when discussing his homo brethren: "I do not assume that homosexual inclination is a disease. Gay and lesbian people have a place in the Church as do all the baptized."

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Episcopal leaders weren't feeling very talkative after Anglican honcho Rowan Williams popped into a New Orleans convention.

Williams flew in and asked the American Anglican branch to abandon their gay-friendly ways. While no one knows what transpired inside, Reverend Robert O'Neill of Colorado described the scene thus:

The general posture was simply one of having a very open and forthright conversation. I don't think anybody was holding back, but everybody was conducting themselves with respect and courtesy and honesty.

Williams' last gasp arrival comes nine days before anti-gay Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola's ultimate deadline. If the Americans don't comply, Akinola will continue his unholy colonial mission.

• Archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglican Communion's head honcho Rowan Williams to hold special "secret" communion with gay Anglicans. A church spokesman said,

It should come as no surprise that the Archbishop is meeting pastorally with clergy and others affected by the current debates in the Church. Such encounters extend across the Church and right across the range of opinions found within the Church. Few of these encounters ever reach the public domain. That is exactly as it should be.

Considering the state of disunion amongst Anglicans, we're sure Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola and his anti-gay brethren will use this against Williams, whom they view as too soft on the pufftas.

• Our favorite CNN journo, Jeanne Moos, takes on the Gays For Giuliani.

• Ireland gets steamy safe gay sex campaign.

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Peter Akinola will not budge when it comes to his homo-hating. The Nigerian Archbishop and his conservative allies may boycott next year's Lambeth Conference unless the American Episcopals change their gay loving ways.

He tells The Times:

The condition for having communion together is for [the Episcopal Church of the United States] to return to where we were by giving up its agenda. The problem is [the US Church’s] and the Western Church’s way of seeing and handling Scripture. Gene Robinson is just a symptom. I kept on saying, you do not have to go through Canterbury to get to Christ.

Akinola's referring to Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion. Williams recentl announced that New Hampshire-based Bishop Gene Robinson, who is gay, can attend next year's conference. Martyn Minns, who leads one of Akinola's American colonies, has not been invited.

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• We saw a line of people waiting for the iPhone. They were all playing with their soon-to-be old phones. We think they're insane, as is the rest of the country.

• Talk about a tabloid wet dream: Francesca Hilton, daugher of Zsa Zsa Gabor and Paris Hilton's late grandfather, Conrad, called Zsa Zsa's current (ninth) husband, Prince Frederic von Anhalt, a faggot. von Anhalt's claim to fame, besides being married to Gabor, would be his claim that he fathered Anna Nicole Smith's baby. The icing - it went down outside a court house. And TMZ got it on video. Tune in for a special peek into Paris' future. (Cue splooge.)

• Mitt Romney's a cat person:

Romney placed his family dog, an Irish setter named Seamus, into a kennel leashed to the top of his station wagon for a 12-hour family trip from Boston to Ontario in 1983. Despite being shielded by a wind screen the former Massachusetts governor erected, Seamus expressed his discomfort with a diarrhea attack.

Romney claims the dog loved riding on the roof in a swirl of liquified shit: "He scrambled up there every time we went on trips." Scrambled? More like slid.

• London Pride ain't afraid of no car bombs. The parade marches on tomorrow. With a mock Eurovision to protest anti-gay nations.

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Ugandan Anglican Archbishop Henry Orombi's a man on a mission. A homophobic mission, that is.

The so-called holy man's attempting to educate the nation's educators on the gay dangers. Speaking in Kayunga, Orombi claims Uganda's teachers are more concerned with getting the kids in school than properly educating them on acceptable social behavior:

Acts of homosexuality and lesbianism have infiltrated our schools, especially secondary schools. I have personally joined the war against the vice and I want you to join me.

While he's asking his countrymen to join his anti-queer crusade, Orombi insisted he and his righteous comrades won't be teaming up with America's pro-gay Episcopals, even if it means giving up precious financial aid:

We shall not associate with them even if it means losing aid. We rather remain poor than accept aid which will in the end lead to moral decay of society.

Religious fanatics never cease to amaze us - this man would rather he and his countrymen go hungry than deal with their gay-friendly Christian cousins? That's some fucked up shit.

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