NEWS STORY: Bishop sees little hope of consensus on gay issues at Anglican meeting

c. 1998 Religion News Service CANTERBURY, England _ The Anglican bishop heading the panel studying human sexuality during the Lambeth Conference says he sees little hope the communion can come to a consensus on the volatile question of the role of gays and lesbians in church and society.”I think that one of the things we […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

CANTERBURY, England _ The Anglican bishop heading the panel studying human sexuality during the Lambeth Conference says he sees little hope the communion can come to a consensus on the volatile question of the role of gays and lesbians in church and society.”I think that one of the things we will almost certainly have to do is to say in our report that we reached no consensus on the subject,”said Bishop Duncan Buchanan of Johannesburg, South Africa.”About a year ago the South African bishops put out a press statement saying precisely that. I think that’s an honest statement.” He does not believe an international commission to study the issue is likely to provide a solution to the sharp disagreements within the Anglican Communion, Buchanan told a news conference.

Some 750 Anglican bishops from around the globe are gathered here for a once-a-decade, three-week-long meeting to discuss and act on issues of concern to the 80 million Anglicans worldwide. The meeting is scheduled to end Aug. 9.


Homosexuality _ especially the question of ordaining sexually active gays and lesbians _ has created a fierce storm of controversy in the church.

Buchanan, whose panel began work on the issue Tuesday (July 21), said he was”pretty shocked and traumatized”by the strength of the anger expressed by opponents of easing church rules on ordaining gays.

Although the panel met behind closed doors, participants said unofficially the group of 60 bishops voted by a two-thirds majority not to allow a presentation Thursday (July 23) by a group of ordained and lay homosexuals who wanted to speak about their experiences. Much of the opposition came from African and Asian bishops, participants said.

One African bishop is reported to have described homosexuality as”the white disease,”while another said if they discussed homosexuality they might as well discuss child abuse and bestiality, too.

Buchanan, when asked about a possible international commission _ an idea supported by Bishop John Spong of Newark, N.J., possibly the leading advocate of granting gays full rights in the church, and one of his chief opponents, Bishop Peter Lee of Christ the King diocese in South Africa _ said,”I believe that for many people that would not be the best way forward.” But Buchanan held up political developments after apartheid in his own country as a possible model for the Anglican Communion.”One thing we have learned in the South African context is that you can start by being hugely polarized, but that doesn’t mean that that is where you end,”he said.”But it takes a lot of hard work, you have to peel away a lot of suspicion, a lot of misunderstandings and a lot of misperceptions in a whole variety of areas, and in that context I believe that we have grown to the point where South Africa has become a very uncomfortable place to live.” He said while there are no easy solutions the South African model indicated that”if we can hold together even though we have hugely divergent views, we can make it.” Buchanan’s panel has five more meetings in the coming days and it and the conference’s other three committees have until the end of next week to draw up any resolutions to be put to the entire body.

Meanwhile, the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement marked Thursday (July 23) as Rainbow Ribbon Day in an effort to persuade participants to show support for gays.”In Christ there are no outcasts, no one is excluded on the basis of race, gender, or sexuality,”said Bishop Richard Holloway, primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, at the launching of Rainbow Ribbon Day.”If the church is to be true to the all-embracing nature of Christ’s love, it will one day have to accept with joy the fact that among God’s cherished children are gay and lesbian people,”he said.

(OPTIONAL TRIM _ STORY MAY END HERE)

On Wednesday, Bishop Rowan Williams of Monmouth laid out a theological rationale for maintaining the unity of the Anglican Communion despite its deep divisions.


Williams said as long as Christians still had in common some kind of language _ what he termed”the grammar of obedience”_ and a similar approach of searching for the truth, it is possible to remain together.”To remain in communion is to remain in solidarity with those who I believe are wounded as well as wounding the church, in the trust that in the body of Christ confronting our wounds is part of opening ourselves to healing,”said Williams.

An example, he said, can be found in the belief of communion of saints coupled with the history of the church.”In the body of Christ, I am now in communion with past Christians who justified slavery, torture, or the execution of heretics on the basis of the same Bible as the one I read, people who prayed probably more intensely than I ever shall,”he said.

DEA END NOWELL

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!