wfn.org | Episcopalians continue sexuality dialogue

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

99-004
`After Lambeth' conference begins Church of England's sexuality 
dialogue

by Susan Erdey
(ENS) An all-day "After Lambeth" conference organized by 
Britain's Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) drew 
representatives from three-quarters of the Church of England's 
dioceses-including 12 bishops-to the University of Derby campus 
in Derby, England, on February 6. Some 270 people attended the 
conference from the Church of England, the Church in Wales, and 
the Scottish Episcopal Church.

Conference organizers said they planned the event to begin 
the dialogue called for in the Lambeth Conference resolution on 
sexuality, in which Anglican bishops pledged to "listen to the 
experience of homosexual persons." The resolution also declared 
that homosexual activity is "incompatible with Scripture." And it 
advised against ordaining open homosexuals or blessing their 
unions.

The event began with a panel of three English bishops-
Michael Bourke of Wolverhampton, Peter Selby of Worcester, and 
Anthony Priddis of Warwick-reflecting on their experiences at 
Lambeth. None was in the conference's sexuality subsection of 
bishops who shared early discussions on the resolution.

Priddis began by explaining the complex dynamics of the 
legislative process, which he said "raises the question of the 
advisability of passing resolutions" during Lambeth Conferences. 
Selby expressed concern that the work of the international debt 
subsection, of which he was a member, may have been deliberately 
"swept out of attention" by Western conservatives pushing the 
sexuality issue. "There was a profound atmosphere of the sinister 
hanging over this event," he noted, repeating a statement he made 
after Lambeth comparing it to the Nazi Party rallies at Nuremberg. 
Bourke recalled that even the Bible study on the morning of the 
sexuality plenary seemed to deny the existence of an identity 
based on sexual 
orientation-a denial "we don't apply in any other area" of human 
life, including race and gender.

Fragment of pain
Keynote speaker Richard Holloway, Bishop of Edinburgh and 
Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, a long-time supporter of 
lesbian and gay issues in the Anglican Communion. Holloway began 
by recalling "fragments of remembered pain" from Lambeth, 
including what he called the "evangelical tragedy" of an 
encounter between some University of Kent students and anti-gay 
demonstrators outside one of the residence halls. "Their 
encounter with Christianity shamed Jesus and scandalized them," 
Holloway said, by wrapping "blind prejudice and ugly hatred in 
the name of Jesus." 

But, he added, the sexuality resolution was also a 
reflection of what he called "necessary compromises" with the 
revolutionary message of Jesus needed to insure the survival of 
the church as an institution. "People are better at guarding the 
process than the vision it serves," said Holloway. He called for 
forgiveness on all sides of the controversy, and an 
acknowledgement that "we are more likely to be clear about 
others' compromises than our own."

Holloway was quoted in the British press as lambasting the 
traditionalist bishops, largely from Africa and Asia, who had 
outvoted the liberals at Lambeth, saying that many "seemed to 
treat the Bible like an infallible law book that needed no 
interpretation and allowed no variation in approach.It was 
interpreted by them as though it had been personally written by 
God and sent by registered mail."

Later, Jan Nunley, rector of a church in Providence, Rhode 
Island, who served as press liaison for the women bishops at 
Lambeth, drew a comparison between the rise of fundamentalism in 
the Southern Baptist Convention in the 1980s and trends in the 
Anglican Communion in the 1990s.

"While the geographic center of Anglicanism may have 
shifted to the Global South, the nerve center of Anglican 
traditionalism is in the American South," Nunley said. "If there 
are no direct connections between Anglican traditionalists and 
Baptist fundamentalists-and I have no proof that there are-it 
certainly seems that these Anglicans are good students of the 
history which has unfolded in their own ecclesial back yard."

Bishops Holloway and Selby joined Nunley and members of the 
LGCM Anglican Forum in a panel discussion to field questions from 
the audience. To a query about how to avoid demonizing those 
opposed to lesbians and gays in the Church, Nunley answered with a 
quote from Episcopalian Gail Godwin's novel Father Melancholy's 
Daughter: "Remember that each one is `also a child of God', no 
matter how trying we may find them to be," she said. "They are 
afraid. But God has not given Christians a spirit of fear."

The Rev. Richard Kirker, LGCM general secretary, reported 
that some English seminarians were apparently encouraged not to 
attend the conference, a fact which "distressed" Selby. 

The presence of bishops at the gathering marked a first for 
lesbians and gays in the Church of England. Dioceses represented 
included Bath & Wells; Birmingham; Blackburn; Bradford; Bristol; 
Carlisle; Chelmsford; Chester; Chichester; Coventry; Derby; 
Durham; Gloucester; Guildford; Hereford; Leicester; Lichfield; 
Lincoln; Liverpool; London; Manchester; Oxford; Portsmouth; Ripon;
Rochester; Salisbury; Sheffield; Southwark; Southwell; Wakefield;
Worcester; and York. 

Although the church's leadership says it has no plans to 
depart from its present policy, which bars practicing homosexuals 
from becoming priests, a British newspaper reported, 
traditionalists fear that pressure is fast growing for change. 
Philip Hacking, chairman of the evangelical group Reform, was
quoted as saying, "There is no doubt that some bishops - led by
the likes of Richard Holloway - would like to overturn what
the majority of Anglicans believe.

"Bishops who seek to undermine the Bible's teaching - as 
endorsed by the overwhelming majority of Anglican bishops 
worldwide - are bringing a crisis on the Church of England."

--Susan Erdey is an editor and writer at Brown University in 
Providence, Rhode Island.

http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens