Homosexuality threatens unity of the church
Monday February 28, 2005
The Guardian
Melanie McDonagh Independent on Sunday, February 27
"It's been a difficult week for Christianity ... There are the noisy and rich American liberals who are insisting that their views on homosexuality - expressed in the consecration of a gay bishop who left his wife for another man - should be recognised by the rest of the Anglican communion. It's all been exquisitely embarrassing for Anglicans - including
Dr Rowan Williams - most of whom would not dream of interfering in the private lives of their vicars, but who draw the line at seeing the church apparently hijacked by the gay rights movement and its opponents ... The issues that now dominate discussion of Christianity tell us little about the faith, but an awful lot about the society it inhabits."
Independent Editorial, February 26
"The Anglican communion is now heading for an irrevocable split over the issue of gay bishops and single-sex marriage. In a very Church of England manner the primates meeting in ... Northern Ireland tried to put an emollient gloss on their decision to ask the offending Episcopal church in the US and the Church of Canada to withdraw their representatives from the governing body of the worldwide church, saying that the withdrawal was only 'temporary' to give them time to reconsider their position ...
"The responsibility for the split was placed firmly on the two North American churches, the onus for mending the fissure was clearly put on their shoulders. That is wrong for the church and wrong for its future."
"Last week's anguished debates ... portend the schism that generations have wanted to avoid. This is a landmark moment ... Dr Williams, a reflex Anglican and deep Christian, has to tolerate and include evangelicals as the valid Christian tradition they represent, but he has to insist that they cannot rule the roost. They would turn the church into an intolerant, right-wing, homophobic sect ... The best Church of England is one that stays true to its tradition of inclusion and tolerance. To surrender all this because of so-called 'legitimate' concerns about security, identity or the real meaning of the Bible will be to change England into something it is not."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/editor/story/0,12900,1426698,00.html