wfn.org | ENGLAND: RETIRED BISHOP SPEAKS OUT ON HOMOSEXUALITY

[a.whitefield@quest.org.uk]

Title; ENGLAND: RETIRED BISHOP SPEAKS OUT ON HOMOSEXUALITY
April 25, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office
London, UK

[97.4.4.4] 

ENGLAND: RETIRED BISHOP SPEAKS OUT ON HOMOSEXUALITY

(ACNS) The former Bishop of Salisbury, the Rt Revd Dr John Baker,  has
called for gay marriages to be sanctioned by the Church of England.  The
Bishop was giving a lecture entitled:"Homosexuality and Christian ethics
- a new way forward" at St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London.  The
Bishop chaired the group which produced - Issues in Human Sexuality  -
the Church of England report in 1991 which reinforced the celibacy  rule
for gay clergy. The Bishop now feels "obliged to dissent from that
judgment."

"I cannot see that married heterosexual clergy have a right to deny
their homosexual brothers and sisters the potential spiritual blessing
of a sexual relationship when they themselves enjoy that blessing. A
public Christian act should not be refused, if desired, because to do so
would be to fall back into the old condemnation of such relationships on
principle," he said.

"If homosexuality is simply a fact about themselves which many people
have to live with, and our moral duty as  Christians is to make use of
it in ways that conduce to spiritual good and not to evil, them the
obvious duty of a priest is to give example and guidance in using it
well."

The bishop also spoke about the possibility of a homosexual divorce:"But
if you begin by marking something publicly, do you not have to have some
public marker if, sadly, it ends? What should Christians say about
homosexual divorce? If we choose to say nothing, is that taking the
spiritual dimension of the relationship seriously," he said.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd  George Carey, said of the
lecture:"Bishop John Baker's conclusions suggest a very significant
departure from the Church's current mind and discipline as set out in
the General Synod Resolution of 1987 and the 1991 House of Bishop's
Statement Issues in Human Sexuality.  There is no question of any sudden
change in the Church's official position regarding homosexual practice,
and Bishop Baker will be well aware that very many of his colleagues and
friends, including myself, will disagree with him about the way forward
he proposes. Nevertheless, his lecture deserves to be read with respect
and care as a contribution to continuing debate.  The House of Bishops
(Church of England) has asked the group chaired by the Bishop of Oxford
to take a special interest in theological contributions of this kind and
General Synod will return to the subject in due course."