wfn.org | Gay Christians Want Homosexuality on 1998 Lambeth Agenda

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20-November-1996 
 
 
96468           Gay Christians Want Homosexuality 
                      on 1998 Lambeth Agenda 
 
                        by Cedric Pulford 
                  Ecumenical News International 
 
LONDON--The head of Britain's Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM), 
which held a controversial celebration for its 20th anniversary in London's 
Southwark Cathedral, has vowed to ensure that the issue of homosexuality is 
on the agenda of the next Lambeth Conference (the gathering of church 
leaders of the Anglican Communion worldwide) in 1998. 
 
     Two thousand supporters filled London's Southwark Cathedral to 
overflowing for a service on Nov. 16 to mark the anniversary of LGCM, one 
of whose aims is to secure the ordination in the Church of England of 
openly practicing homosexuals. 
 
     Several Church of England bishops were present at the service. 
However, many Anglicans strongly opposed the event in the cathedral. Philip 
Hacking, chairman of a prominent evangelical group, Reform, warned against 
ordaining practicing gays. He told the Press Association news agency: "If 
we go further down this road, it will certainly lead to a fragmentation of 
the Church of England." 
 
     In 50 parishes across Britain, services of fasting and prayer were 
organized by an unusual coalition of evangelical and traditionalist members 
opposed to the Southwark celebrations. Hacking said members of Reform were 
praying "against the occasion, praying for God to have mercy on the church 
and turn back those going against the commandments." 
 
     The Southwark service was the culmination of a colorful daylong 
ecumenical festival for LGCM's 20th anniversary. A blue banner over one of 
the stands at the festival declared: "Jesus Christ, he is the way -- we 
believe it, and we are gay." 
 
     The congregation in the cathedral heard the Bishop of Guildford, John 
Gladwin, give a sermon in which he called for lesbians and gays to be part 
on an inclusive "community of support and care" and warned of "powerful and 
ungodly homophobic forces at work in our culture." However, in his sermon 
Bishop Gladwin balanced his sympathy for gay people with an affirmation of 
church doctrine. He said there was a tension between the church's 
understanding of sexuality and "what lesbian and gay people find to be good 
and creative in their lives." 
 
     He added: "That is no reason for abandoning this tradition. ... Let me 
say gently to you, and I know this is not going to be easy to hear, we 
cannot solve our dilemma by turning cohabitation or same-sex relationships 
into marriage." 
 
     Bishop Walter Righter, an American Episcopalian who was recently 
cleared by a U.S. church court of heresy for ordaining a practicing 
homosexual, visited London with his wife especially for the Southwark 
celebration. He told the congregation: "You are the prophets, you are 
calling the church to account. Keep the heat on." 
 
     After the service, Richard Kirker, LGCM's secretary, told ENI that the 
next stage for his organization would be to expand the "welcoming 
congregations" program in which churches put up notices declaring their 
acceptance of homosexuals. 
 
     The anniversary was earlier the subject of intervention by the 
Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr.  George Carey denied that by permitting the 
service in Southwark Cathedral the Church of England was thereby endorsing 
gay rights. 
 
     Archbishop Carey's statement, made on Nov. 8, said that to make a 
cathedral available for worship and prayer "cannot properly be taken as an 
endorsement of whatever the congregation wants." Archbishop Carey also said 
that "it is plain that some of the aims of the [LGCM] are in conflict with 
[those of] the General Synod [of the Church of England] ... the bishops 
cannot regard homosexual practice as on a par with heterosexual practice 
within marriage." 

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