Lambeth Gay Vote a Blow for Reform

[05/08/98 -  - Web - http://www.churchnet.org.uk/news/topstory.html]

The Lambeth Conference, in a vote early this evening, inflicted a severe blow on liberalisers in the Anglican Communion who had hoped for a step forward in the Church's attitude to homosexuals. 

The omens were not good before the debate started, as Rev Richard Kirker, General Secretary of Britain's Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, warded off an attempt by a conservative Bishop to lay hands on him and deliver him "in the name of Jesus". 

The topic of human sexuality has been debated privately by one of the four Sections of the Conference, which saw its fair share of discord spill beyond the doors, but today's public debate was as vigorous as might have been expected of an issue which has plagued the Church at least as much as the vexed subject of the ordination of women. Some had hoped that a Commission might be established to oversee the issue, as had been the case with the earlier debate, but were disappointed. The possibility of a Commission had been raised by the Archbishop of Canterbury at last year's Church of England General Synod in York. 

Rt Rev Duncan Buchanan, Bishop of Johannesburg and Chair of the Section discussing human sexuality, exhorted the Conference to take a positive view. "We are not asking anyone in this room to endorse homosexual practice," he said. "We are asking you to exercise the same compassion as Christ does to any person, including yourself." 

In the event, however, the Conference passed by an overwhelming majority a firmly traditional resolution, amended from a more liberal original version, which confirmed the traditional view that homosexual practice is "incompatible with Scripture". Marriage is upheld, same sex unions and the ordination of practising homosexuals is rejected. Those "not called to marriage" should be celibate. The resolution was passed by a majority of 456. There were 45 abstentions. 

The Archbishop of Canterbury tried to play down the vote, telling the Conference that it was simply a restatement of the view that Anglicans had always held. Nevertheless, he said, all should be aware of the need to continue to listen. 

The Bishop of Oxford, Rt. Rev Richard Harries put a positive gloss on the resolution, claiming that both sides of the debate could be content with it. "I believe that people from Africa and other parts of the world can go back proudly from Lambeth with this resolution and say there is a strong statement of traditional values," he declared, "but it does at least keep the door open to those of homosexual orientation." 

This door, however, does not appear to open onto a Church fully accepting of homosexuals. The resolution speaks of gays within the Church "seeking the pastoral care, moral direction of the Church, and God's transforming power for the living of their lives and the ordering of relationships", although it does accept gays as "full members of the Body of Christ". 

There are those in the Anglican Communion who would not wish to see it that way. The Sudanese Bishop of Rejas, Rt. Rev Michael Lugor, even claimed that there was no homosexuality in his Province. "In the Sudan we know nothing of what you call homosexuality," he said. "We only know the gospel." 

The resolution was quickly welcomed by the Evangelical Alliance, the umbrella body representing Evangelical churches in the UK. Public Affairs director Martyn Eden welcomed the reaffirmation of traditional teaching. "The Church must respect all men and women made in the image of God," he said, "and therefore homophobia must be opposed. However this is not the same as accepting or supporting lifestyles and practices which conflict with the traditions of Christianity and the teachings of scripture." 

Having been amended several times prior to its passing the resolution emerges as a bit of a muddle. The vaguely positive lines about accepting gays into the Body of Christ do not sit easily with the final clause, entirely an amendment, in praise of the dogmatic and highly traditional Kuala Lumpur statement, which last year prompted veteran pro-gay campaigner Jack Spong, Bishop of Newark, New Jersey, into a public dispute with the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Kuala Lumpur Statement declared that homosexuality was a sin. Today's resolution stopped short of that. 

Although the vote is certainly a setback for the liberal wing, Jack Spong himself, who has ordained practising homosexuals and welcomes them in his New Jersey Diocese of Newark, was philosophical, if provocative. Speaking on BBC News he said that there would be openly gay Bishops at the next Lambeth Conference in 2008 and no one would think anything of it. "The world moves in a way that information finally gets down to the grass roots and then people have to change their prejudices and their fears," he said. 

In spite of its overwhelming view, the Lambeth Conference in fact has no authority to declare what should happen throughout the Anglican Communion. It will remain up to individual Provinces to decide within their own ruling body which line they wish to take. 

Whatever messages are taken home from Lambeth, the debate is far from over.