Archbishop of Canterbury changes in gay Anglican debate
by Matt | August 29th, 2006 |
The Most Reverend and Right Honorable, the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury (yeah, that is his real title, folks) Rowan Williams has taken a sharp turn to the conservative side in the debate, sparked by the confirmation of The Rt. Reverend V. Gene Robinson (Bishop of New Hampshire), over the role of LGBT persons in the life of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
According to an article from 365Gay.com News, the Archbishop told a Dutch paper in a recent interview that homosexuals must “accept the traditional teaching of the Church.”
In an interview with a Dutch newspaper Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said that gays must accept the traditional teaching of the Church - a signal that he no longer supports the idea of gay clergy and now adheres to the Lambeth Conference decision of 2004 that says gays are welcome in the denomination but that homosexuality is incompatible with Scripture.
“I don’t believe inclusion is a value in itself. Welcome is,” Williams told the publication.
“We don’t say ‘Come in, and we ask no questions.’ I do believe conversion means conversion of habits, behaviors, ideas, emotions.”
Williams went on to say that “ethics is not a matter of a set of abstract rules, it is a matter of living the mind of Christ. That applies to sexual ethics.”
It is the most conservative pronouncement on gays Williams has made as the rift widens betweens Church liberals and traditionalists that began when the Episcopal Church in the United States elected an openly gay man in a relationship with another man to be bishop of New Hampshire.
The Archbishop, who holds the highest and most honorable post in the worldwide Anglican Church, has been seen as generally accepting of LGBT persons in the Church, including the acceptance of gay Church members and clergy.
A leader of one of many LGBT religious groups within the Church, The Reverend Giles Goddard said, “The implication is that there is no justification in Scripture for the welcome of lesbian and gay people. It appears that he has moved into the conservative camp.”
The Reverend also said the Archbishop’s remarks were “astonishing.”
The debate over the place of LGBT persons within the Church has grown bigger in recent years and is beginning to take its toll on the unity of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Within the United States’ Episcopal Church and among the many other provinces of the Communion, many parishes and dioceses have broken away or threatened to break away from Church leaders who support gays in the clergy.
The Anglican debate is also starting to have an affect on relations with other churches around the globe. The Russian Orthodox Church recently decided to break ties with the Anglican Church’s U.S. province.
In past posts I have stated that the Archbishop of Canterbury needed to step up and take a more proactive stance in uniting the worldwide Communion. I said we couldn’t afford to have the Church splinter into different groups. After the Archbishop’s latest remarks, I’m beginning to rethink if he is the right person to save this Church and its people from division.
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4 Responses to “Archbishop of Canterbury changes in gay Anglican debate”
Williams is beginning to disappoint other progressive groups, too. He was elected Archbishop as clearly a progressive alternative to what had been before. And his writings had seemed to point in that direction.
But, just after he was elected, he was invited to address the annual convention of Sabeel: The Palestinian Christian Center for Liberation Theology and his speech was all about the greatness of Israel and the need for nonviolence–with nothing about justice for Palestinians!
Now this. Maybe becoming an Archbishop does this to you?
By Michael the Leveller on Aug 29, 2006
I think that the Archbishop is really trying to play a game of balancing out the thoughts and opinions of millions in his Church. I understand his job is probably one of the hardest political/religious jobs in the world; I’d rank its difficulty right up there with the Pope’s and other major, world religious leaders.
I just wish that the Archbishop hadn’t turned so drastically on the LGBT issue. Before he had been somewhat supportive and now he has turned completely to the opposing side. He isn’t doing a very good job at the balancing act.
I just don’t understand why someone hasn’t stepped up to say something. I understand that the Queen’s powers are more ceremonial nowadays, but she is still the “Keeper and Defender of the Faith” and I haven’t heard of one time where she has spoken out on this issue. She has a great opportunity to come in and to try to help the situation and she should do it. Does she really want to see the children of her Church (i.e. the provinces of the Anglican Church) fall to pieces and disown each other?
By Matt on Aug 29, 2006
Oh… and let me add… The debate and possible schism we are seeing in the Church in recent times is what happens when large, world-wide organizations do not have a clearly identifiable centrial authority figure (akin to the Pope in the Roman Church). The Anglican Communion should rethink how they are set up and how decisions are made, especially in times when the unity of the Church seems to be disappearing and quick, substantive action is needed to save it.
By Matt on Aug 29, 2006
Archbishop Williams’ capitulation to those forces within Anglicanism that would continue the Church’s millenium-spanning silencing of its gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered children would now appear to be near complete.
So very sad, particularly coming from a man who initially had shown so much promise of reform. Under the guise of ‘maintaining unity’ (even when that unity encompasses falling into march behind an individual such as the Primate of Nigeria who has called for the continued outlawing of homosexual conduct and whose country’s policies of putting gay people to death said Primate ardently supports), Dr. Williams has betrayed not only his LGBT brethren, but has forfeited the prophetic dimension of his important office.
And once again, sadly, we see the axiomatic lack of quality exhibited by “liberal Churchpeople” as long-term allies in the struggle for human freedom, dignity and equality.
I at one time believed that if Anglcanism had any distinctive charism within the Christian tradition, it was that of hospitality. Clearly I, and many others erred in this.
When the history of the Church in this period we are living through is finally written, I feel that Rowan Williams will be recalled as someone who willingly sacrificed the call to do justice on the altar of the God of conformity and will emerge as, at best, a tragic figure, and at worst an enemy of human freedom, happiness and dignity.
By William A. Courson, Executive Director on Sep 3, 2006