The Church of England is dripping with the poison of deceit: The church has allowed itself to become infected by the prejudice and homophobia...

...deliberations of the group appointed to select a new bishop of Southwark were marked by ¨acrimony and manipulation.¨ HERE

¨The church urgently needs to find the courage to deal with the poisonous culture of prejudice against women and gays.¨

¨Last week, a leaked memorandum revealed that the deliberations of the group appointed to select a new bishop of Southwark were marked by acrimony and manipulation. The same day the House of Bishops' meeting in York failed to agree new guidelines to evaluate whether a gay priest was fit to be appointed bishop, guidelines seemingly designed to prevent Jeffrey John from being appointed.

There are in the House of Bishops five who are gay. Other bishops are their friends and are actively supportive of gay and lesbian priests and lay people in the church. When the new guidelines were being discussed, it appears that not one of the gay bishops had the courage to say to his brothers: hang on, I'm gay? Nor did any of the gay-friendly bishops present have the courage to say: hang on, some of you may not know who among us is gay, but I have several good friends in this room who are.


There are 13 bishops who are gay in The Church of England and none are publicly open about their sexuality

The Church of England has 13 bishops who are gay. None are publicly open about their sexuality and, as far as I know, none have been open about their sexuality in the process of being appointed bishop. Until last year, potential bishops were never interviewed so there was no opportunity to ask the question or volunteer the information.

The church has created an impossible dilemma for itself. No candidate who is gay or has been involved in a same-sex relationship in the past is going to willingly volunteer this information. It is rightly a personal matter and in secular society, irrelevant to someone's capacity to perform their work. Secular employment best practice sets an example that the Church of England would do well to adopt. The process of appointing bishops should be transparent and open...please read it all, The Reverend Colin Coward HERE


The Archbishop of Canterbury has been ¨creating impossible dilemmas¨

Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury and the Arch­bishop of York, Dr Sentamu have been straining every legal sinew to exclude openly gay bishops — even celibate ones — from their number at The House of Bishops


The Archbishop of York has been ¨straining every legal sinew¨

¨..The trouble is that, at the moment, a whole world of grammar is being invented with the express purpose of keeping gay people out of senior church positions. From the dreaded Anglican Covenant (whose purpose seems to be much the same) to this new advice, our Church is construct­ing its ground rules specifically to exclude homosexuals. And there is another phrase for that: institution­alised homophobia...¨  please read it all, The Reverend Dr Giles Fraser HERE

(emphasis and photos added by Leonardo Ricardo)

HERE

· Thanks to The Church Times, United Kingdom
· Thanks to the Reverend Dr Giles Fraser, Canon Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral and Director of the St Paul’s Institute
· Thanks to The Guardian, United Kingdom
· Thanks to the Reverend Colin Coward
· Thanks to Flickr Photo Sharing, radmagan