NEWS STORY: Anglican bishops reject easing church rules on active homosexuals

c. 1998 Religion News Service CANTERBURY, England _ By an overwhelming majority, bishops of the Anglican Communion voted Wednesday (Aug. 5) to affirm church teaching that homosexual activity is incompatible with church teaching and refused to endorse the blessing of same-sex unions and ordinations of active gays and lesbians. The vote on the resolution was […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

CANTERBURY, England _ By an overwhelming majority, bishops of the Anglican Communion voted Wednesday (Aug. 5) to affirm church teaching that homosexual activity is incompatible with church teaching and refused to endorse the blessing of same-sex unions and ordinations of active gays and lesbians.

The vote on the resolution was 526-70, with 45 abstentions.


The gay issue was the most divisive one facing the some 750 Anglican bishops from around the world gathered for the three-week long, once-a-decade Lambeth Conference.

It pitted generally liberal bishops from North America and Europe against more conservative traditionalists from Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Even before the debate, emotions on the highly charged issue ran high.”God has said that those who condone and who support and those who are involved in homosexuality will not inherit the kingdom of God,”said Bishop Emmanuel Chukwuma of Nigeria.

After two-and-a-half hours of tense and sometimes emotional debate, chaired good-humoredly by Archbishop Robin Eames of Ireland the conference voted to uphold the teaching of faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman in lifelong union and expressed its belief that abstinence is right for those not called to marriage.”Many members (bishops) face genuine pressure,”Eames said in opening the discussion.”It is vital to let the conference express its mind.” The adopted resolution explicitly rejected homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture and said it could not approve the legitimizing or blessing of same-sex unions or the ordination of sexually active gays and lesbians.

At the same time, the resolution recognized there are many gays and lesbians in the church.”Many of these are members of the church and are seeking the pastoral care and moral direction of the church, and God’s transforming power for the living of their lives and the ordering of relationships,”the resolution said.”We commit ourselves to listen to the experience of homosexual people. We wish to assure them that they are loved by God and that all baptized, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the body of Christ.” The conference also called on Anglicans to minister with sensitivity to all people irrespective of their sexual orientation and to condemn irrational fear of homosexuals, violence within marriage, and the trivialization and commercialization of sex.

During the debate, the resolution, which began as a fairly conservative statement, was toughened even further by amendment, including the explicit condemnation of homosexual practice, despite warnings by more liberal bishops that the changes would prove divisive and counter-productive.

Bishop David Crawley of Canada said the conservative amendments were”bit by bit, step by step”giving the church’s statement on the issue”the face of condemnation.” Bishop Catherine Waynick of Indianapolis told the conference that in the past the church had thought it had the correct answers to moral problems such as slavery but centuries later had to repent.”I want to suggest that our call is not to correctness but to love,”she said.

Similarly Bishop Catherine S. Roskam of New York warned the conference:”Pass this and you will have a divided church.” Roskam said while she acknowledged that in some parts of the world acceptance of homosexuality would be”evangelical suicide”_ as was argued by some prelates from Africa and Asia _ in her region the condemnation of homosexuality would constitute”evangelical suicide.” But Bishop Eustace Kamanyire of Uganda attacked bishops, clergy, and laity he said were undermining the church by their acceptance of homosexuality.”This false teaching emanating from part of the Anglican Communion, when exported to Africa and other parts of the world, is causing serious damage and scandal to Christ and his church,”he said.


Bishop Alexander Malik of Pakistan asked ironically if those who were ready to bless homosexual relations were also prepared to bless people’s relationships with their pets?

However, Archbishop John Neill of Ireland argued the Anglican Communion must be a church that listened to all people.”Any outright condemnation of homosexuality or of sexual activity outside marriage would divide us,”he warned. At the same time, he acknowledged that any acceptance of homosexual practices would”go beyond what can be said at present in the light of Scripture and tradition”and also would seriously divide the church.

The bishops’ task, he said, is to discover what Scripture is saying about homosexuality in the light of contemporary culture and such a task is not simple.

At the end of what he described as a”quite difficult and painful debate,”Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, asked the bishops to pledge themselves to continue listening to one another.”I stand wholeheartedly with traditional Anglican orthodoxy,”Carey said.”I see no room in Holy Scripture or tradition for any sexual activity outside matrimony of husband and wife.” Carey also told the bishops that as important as the question of homosexuality is, there are more important issues before the conference, such as international debt, world poverty, and the church’s mission to young people _ all issues yet to be grappled with by the bishops.

DEA END NOWELL

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