MORALLY CONTEMPTIBLE: Tragically, the position of Rowan Williams on homosexuality continued to change and harden after he reached the throne of St. Augustine

¨Under Rowan Williams, the church has failed gay people¨

The Anglican church is on a path to acceptance of gay marriage. What a shame such disunity has to be caused along the way

Since 2005, same-sex couples in Britain have been able to contract a civil covenant which gives them the same legal protection and framework as heterosexual marriage. It is an act of legislation that has been almost universally acknowledged as a great good, a real advance for social stability and human happiness.

Far more people entered civil partnerships than the government had anticipated, and in the first years a high proportion of them were older couples who had been together in secrecy or semi-secrecy for decades – some from before the time homosexual acts were decriminalised in 1967. The sense of release and liberation, of joy in a newfound sense of dignity and affirmation, was extraordinary. For gay Christians it was a cause of profound thanksgiving to god.

For official church – and here my concern is mainly with the Church of England – is one of the few public domains where this development has been only grudgingly accepted, and in some quarters vehemently opposed. In recent years, while society has moved towards acceptance, the church has arguably moved in the opposite direction.

The ¨disappearing act¨ of Rowan Williams

When the archbishop of Canterbury George Carey was succeeded by Rowan Williams in 2002, most expected a change of approach, not least since Williams himself had endorsed an ethical framework for gay relationships and personally campaigned against the culture of lying about homosexuality that obtains in the church. Tragically, he changed his public position as soon as he reached the throne of St Augustine. Since then the church's line on homosexuality has continued to harden. The CofE has refused to countenance any form of official liturgical recognition for civil partnerships; has sought special exemptions from human rights and equalities legislation in order to continue discriminating against openly gay clergy or gay employees; has repeatedly restated its condemnation of all sexual relations outside heterosexual marriage; and has formally debarred even celibate gay clergy from becoming bishops.

Most recently, the bishops of the CofE have set themselves against government proposals to extend civil marriage to include same-sex couples. Their opposition is above all a public and political stance which is intended to maintain ecclesiastical unity, particularly within the Anglican communion. About half the world's Anglicans are African, and the majority of them are in violently homophobic countries whose churches back harsh punishments against homosexuals, right up to the death penalty...¨ please read it all, HERE Jeffrey John, The Guardian, 14th August 2012

·  Thanks to The Very Reverend Jeffrey John
·  Thanks to The Guardian, United Kingdom

THE ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY and YORK TO BE EXPOSED PUBLICLY/LEGALLY? The Very Reverend Jeffrey John victim of demeaning, prejudice and discrimination at The Church of England/Crown Nominations Commission?

¨The Very Rev Jeffrey John, Dean of St Albans, has instructed an eminent employment lawyer to complain to Church officials after being rejected for the role of Bishop of Southwark.¨

¨...Dr John was at the centre of a storm in 2003 when forced to step down as Bishop of Reading by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams after it became known that he was in a gay, though celibate, relationship. The furore fuelled a bitter civil war within the Anglican Church that has dominated Dr Williams’s decade in office.

The dean was again a cause of infighting in 2010 when he was a candidate for Bishop of Southwark. A respected theologian and former canon at Southwark Cathedral, he had strong backing from senior Church liberals and it was said even David Cameron was supportive.

But the Crown Nominations Commission, whose members are responsible for selecting bishops and include Dr Williams, appointed another candidate. Dr John was said to be furious and his supporters’ anger was stoked by a memo by another member of the commission, the late Dean of Southwark Colin Slee, claiming Dr Williams was one of those who tried to ‘wreck’ Dr John’s chances...¨ please read it all,
HERE

·  Thanks to Jonathan Petre
·  Thanks to The Very Reverend Jeffrey John
·  Thanks to The Daily Mail, United Kingdom

Exposing The Church of Englands Double Standard: ¨Please let us make some attempt to be even-handed and avoid such blatant hypocrisy¨

The Very Reverend Jeffrey John, Dean of St. Albans

¨Jeffrey John is a man in a faithful relationship with his life partner. Normally the church would commend this sort of long-term and committed relationship – but the rules change when the two people in question are the same gender...¨  The Reverend Dr. Lesley Fellows
 

¨...seeking advice to avoid the Equality Act¨ Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

¨The latest evidence of prejudice against homosexual people in the Church of England has come from the leaked Colin Slee memo and advice that Archbishop Rowan Williams sought in order to get around the Equality Act (2010). This counsel was to ensure that a gay man, ie Jeffrey John, was not appointed as bishop of Southwark. A cunning checklist was devised, consisting of five questions:

• whether the candidate had always complied with the Church's teachings on same-sex sexual activity;


• whether he was in a civil partnership;


• whether he was in a continuing civil partnership with a person with whom he had had an earlier same-sex relationship;


• whether he had expressed repentance for any previous same-sex sexual activity; and


• whether (and to what extent) the appointment of the candidate would cause division and disunity within the diocese in question, the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion.

By my reckoning, Jeffrey John fails on five out of five. One could be forgiven for thinking that this is a list deliberately designed to exclude him...¨ please join the conversation, HERE

·  Thanks to The Reverend Dr. Lesley Fellows, sidebar
·  Thanks to The Guardian, United Kingdom
·  Thanks to PA, photo