Anglicans to hold 'consultation' on homosexuality The Layman Online Monday, October 4, 1999 Anglican bishops will meet later this year at a "consultation" in New York to discuss issues relating to homosexuality. The event, announced during a meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Dundee, Scotland, intends to include "all shades of opinion" within the world-wide Anglican Communion. The consultation follows a decision at last year's Lambeth Conference, the once a decade gathering of Anglican bishops worldwide, which declared by 526 votes to 70, with 45 abstentions, that homosexual practice was incompatible with Scripture, and that it "cannot advise the legitimizing or blessing of same-sex unions, nor the ordination of those involved in such unions." Church teaching has changed According to a report by Ecumenical News International, Richard Kirker, secretary of the London-based Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, said he welcomed the meeting, but that the detailed arrangements would be critical. He wanted to know the consultation's terms of reference, its duration and resources, and especially "whether self-affirming gays can be present." No serving Anglican bishop admitted to being homosexual, he pointed out. Kirker told Ecumenical News International he had been "listened to attentively and respectfully, although some no doubt were anxious and angry," adding, "The occasion was significant. I suspect it was the first time that a majority had felt it incumbent to listen without haranguing or interrupting." The news organization also reported that another member of the group, Martin Hogg, an Edinburgh University lecturer, praised the Scottish Episcopal Church as "to me a welcoming and tolerant place, a real family," and urged, "It is not as if the Anglican Communion has failed to move on other areas of deep human intimacy, such as divorce or contraception. In these areas, church teaching has come to reflect the ethic of its congregations." Hogg continued, "We are a church which has accepted that God may reveal greater understanding in science and in ethics through the secular world. Can we not at least explore whether that is true of homosexuality without resorting to the smokescreen that this would be to compromise with the world?" Keeping religion out of ethics Ecumenical News International reported that Archbishop Moses Tay of Southeast Asia boycotted the meeting to protest the views of Bishop Richard Holloway, the Anglican leader in Scotland. Holloway, an outspoken supporter of homosexual rights, has just published a book called Godless Morality, with the sub-title Keeping Religion Out of Ethics, in which he declines to condemn drug-taking, abortion and sexual promiscuity as well as homosexuality.

Respond to this article

Home · News · PLC Publications · The Presbyterian Layman Online Reviews · Archives · History of the Lay Committee · Feedback · Links