wfn.org | [ENS] Church of England issues updated guide to sexuality debate

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

11/13/2003

Church of England issues updated guide to sexuality debate

by James Solheim 
  
[Episcopal News Service] The Church of England's House of Bishops has
offered a guide, "Some Issues in Human Sexuality," to encourage continuing
discussion. The report is a follow-up to the 1991 document, "Issues in Human
Sexuality," that said gays and lesbians should not be excluded from the
fellowship of the church or from the Eucharist-but added that celibacy was
the rule for clergy. The new report, launched November 4, does not change
church policy. 

"Recent events have highlighted the need for such a guide," said Bishop
Richard Harries of Oxford, who chaired the group of bishops that produced
the guide as a contribution to help Christians sort out the issues.

The Church of England has an "unhealthy obsession" with sexual sin,
according to a panel of bishops who betrayed a frustration with the way the
issues are threatening the unity of the church-especially in the wake of
reactions to the consecration of an openly gay bishop in the Episcopal
Church.

The 320-page guide is not intended to direct the debate towards any
conclusions but rather "to help Christian people think through different
aspects of gay, lesbian and transsexual relationships," according to the
introduction.  While it describes a wide range of sexual activities it also
contains a defense of the church's policies, noting that the church has been
criticized for being "too permissive" and "too restrictive."

Among the advantages of the church policies, the bishops said, is that they
reflect a consensus of opinion that still allows for "sensitive care" of
homosexuals while maintaining the "internal unity and its relationship with
its Anglican partner churches."

The guide recommends continuing education because "the discussion of
homosexuality is not something that is going to go away. People need to be
encouraged to explore... whether there is an unhealthy obsession with sexual
sin that prevents people from focusing on other kinds of sin, such as
commercial greed, poverty and inequalities of wealth."

The guide also acknowledges that homosexuals "will have encountered
misunderstandings or hostility from members of the Christian Church in the
past and, if the Christian gospel is to be meaningful to them, it will need
to be incarnated in terms of Christ's love."

The guide concluded, "If this is in the context of pastoral care, then that
must offer them understanding, support, and unconditional love as they seek
to meet the challenges to Christian discipleship that their particular form
of sexuality raises."

The study guide is available from the Church House Bookshop in London.	To
order visit their web site at http://www.chbookshop.co.uk

-- James Solheim is director of Episcopal News Service