Truth and Consequences at The Anglican Communion: ¨...we have don’t ask, don’t tell, dishonesty, duplicity, secrecy, denial – anything but transparency and truth...¨

To the Archbishop of Canterbury: ¨why are none of the 3 gay Primates in the Anglican Communion able to be open about their sexuality and why are none of the 10 to 13 gay bishops in the Church of England publicly open? Some are married, some are single and celibate, some are not, all are closeted...¨ Colin Coward+

¨...it is dangerously unsafe in the Anglican Communion to be openly gay in Nigeria or Uganda¨

¨...Why have I tucked these statistics away so far down this post? - because it is dangerously unsafe in the Anglican Communion to be openly gay in Nigeria or Uganda and still unsafe to be openly gay (and partnered) in parts of the Church of England. I feel less safe this morning than I did 6 weeks ago before the question of our Civil Partnership became such a contentious issue at the local, diocesan, national and international church levels. HERE

Gay bishops and LGBT clergy are able to exist in the Church of England under two separate conditions. Either they stay in the closet and the Church doesn’t know they are gay (or pretends it doesn’t know) or they live under the care of a bishop who ignores church teaching and the claims made by the Archbishop of Canterbury and licenses and PTOs are given in full knowledge of someone’s sexuality and relational status.

This is intolerable and is what makes me so angry with the Church. Gay bishops are clearly not all right, and it is still impossible in England for the Archbishop to preside over a Church which ordains bishops who are known to be gay. At the moment, we don’t, knowingly, have any gay bishops. Instead, we have don’t ask, don’t tell (Tom Butler’s preferred model in his early Southwark days), dishonesty, duplicity, secrecy, denial – anything but transparency and truth. This is not conducive to a good, holy, Christian pattern of life. ¨read it all, by Colin Coward; HERE

· Changing Attitudes, United Kingdom, sidebar
· The Reverend Colin Coward, Church of England