Anglican Pioneers?
By Dwight Longenecker
Two weeks ago the Vatican released new guidelines on the eligibility of homosexual men for the priesthood. At the same time the worldwide Anglican Communion faces new upheavals on the same issue.
Leaders in the Church of England often speak of their church as a ‘pioneer’ of new directions in the Christian Church worldwide. They like to point out that they endorsed the liturgy in the vernacular, then 400 years later the Catholic Church followed suit. It indeed true that in some areas of church practise the Catholic Church has eventually adopted changes first pioneered by the Anglicans. Will the same be true on the issue of homosexuality? Are Anglicans leading other Christians into the promised land, or into a wilderness?
Homosexual Bishop
The homosexuality issue had been brewing in the Anglican Church since the foundation of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement in the 1980s. The issue came to a head in 1998 at the Lambeth Conference—a meeting of the world’s Anglican bishops. The homosexuality issue flared up as bishops from the developing world confronted what they viewed as the unscriptural and decadent position of the English, Canadian and American bishops. The conservative Third World bishops seemed to prevail with a strong statement affirming traditional Christian sexuality.
The American and English bishops signed the agreement, but in June 2003 Canon Gene Robinson was elected as the Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire. Robinson is a homosexual who divorced his wife to live with his male partner. At the same time in England Canon Geoffrey John—a noted homosexual activist—was appointed Bishop of Reading. Canon John eventually withdrew his acceptance of the post, and was made a cathedral dean instead. Meanwhile, in Canada, the Anglican Church began the process of formally blessing same sex unions.
Evangelical Anglicans felt betrayed and were up in arms. As soon as the election was announced. Peter Jensson, the conservative Archbishop of Sydney in Australia, suggested that the American and Canadian churches should be expelled from the Anglican Communion.
As Robinson’s consecration moved closer. Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, tried desperately to calm the storm. Williams is himself sympathetic to ‘homosexual liberation’. Nevertheless, Dr Williams has tried hard to put his own sympathies on one side and resolve the heated debate with a mixture of gentle persuasion, diplomacy and spirituality.
The African and Asian bishops weren’t having it. They head the largest branches of worldwide Anglicanism, and believe they represent the future of the church. They dismissed the attempts at an ‘Anglican fudge’ and met with their fellow primates in London in Autumn 2003 to try and force a Scriptural resolution to the issue. There was little dialogue. One bishop described the meeting as ‘trying to play tennis with someone on an adjacent court.’ A few months later Robinson’s consecration went ahead.
The New Anti Catholicism
Part of the Catholic response to homosexuality is the recent statement on seminary discipline. Without openly referring to events in the Anglican Communion, the Catholic Church has stated her position. In diplomatic terms, the recent Catholic statement is not only a reference to internal affairs of Catholic seminaries. It is also a clear statement of Christian morality with a subtext that can be read as rebuke to the Anglican hierarchy.
Anglicans have read it that way. In November 2005 Bishop Gene Robinson was in London, to speak at a conference of the Gay Rights group, Changing Attitude. He used the occasion to attack the Catholic Church saying her stance on homosexuals in the priesthood was ‘vile.’ In a bitterly uncharitable speech Robinson said, ‘Pope Ratzinger may be the best thing to happen to the Episcopal Church…We are seeing so many Roman Catholics join the (Episcopal) church.’
In his recent book, The New Anti-Catholicism church historian Philip Jenkins notes that the old anti-Catholicism that was nurtured by Protestant bias is disappearing. While there is a new convergence between Evangelicals and Catholics, a new anti-Catholicism is emerging which is expressed by radical feminists and homosexualists. Gene Robinson is an exponent of this new anti-Catholicism, and most mainstream Anglican bishops are not far behind.
The bishops from the developing world, however, continue to flex their muscles. While Bishop Robinson was in London attacking the Catholic Church, The Asian and African bishops published an open letter to Archbishop Williams strongly urging him to return to the authority of Scripture, and take action. They questioned his weak leadership writing, ‘ We wonder…whether your personal dissent from this consensus prevents you from taking the necessary steps to confront those churches that have embraced teaching contrary to the overwhelming testimony of the Anglican Communion and the church catholic.’
Same Sex Marriage
Every week some new development erupts which threatens to turn the squall over homosexuality into Anglicanism’s perfect storm. Last week the legislation authorising same sex ‘civil partnerships’ in Britain was finally enacted.
The first couple to be ‘married’ were two lesbians in Belfast. Pop singer Elton John took the step with his long term partner, and within the week an Anglican vicar was involved. Rev Christopher Wardale wasn’t blessing a homosexual union in church. On 21 December he and his partner Malcolm Macourt signed the papers formalising their own civil partnership. They promptly flouted their own churches guidelines that homosexual civil partnerships should not be celebrated in church by having a blessing ceremony at which the retired Bishop of Durham—Rt Rev David Jenkins was the preacher.
Authority in the Church
While the storms rage, Evangelicals in the Church of England are asking important questions about authority in the church. When the Church of England ordained women twelve years ago, the Anglo Catholics who were unhappy were given their own ‘flying’ bishops—bishops who exercised a non-jurisdictional ministry.
Now Evangelicals are claiming the same right. In November while Bishop Robinson was in London, a thriving Evangelical parish asked an African bishop to ordain three men to the Anglican priesthood. It was also announced that Rev Sandy Millar, the senior pastor of the famous Evangelical London parish, Holy Trinity Brompton, was to be ordained a ‘missionary bishop’ by the Bishop of Uganda. The unprecedented move was ratified by the Anglican authorities, but insiders admit that Millar’s consecration is the hierarchy’s way of giving Evangelicals their own ‘anti-homosexual’ bishop.
While the Anglican Church continues to divide over the issue of homosexuality, Catholics cannot assume a self righteous or gloating stance. Catholics would do well, however, to observe the bitter divisions within the Church of England, take heed, and consider again both the value of the Catholic Church’s authority as well as her historic teaching on sexual matters.
Dwight Longenecker’s most recent book is Christianity Pure & Simple, published by Sophia Institute Press.
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Info Box
Anglicans and Homosexuality Timeline
1985 – Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement founded in Britain to campaign for homosexual rights
1992 – When Anglican Church votes to ordain women, head of LGCM says there is nothing to stop practising homosexuals from being ordained
1997 – Under George Carey’s leadership, Anglican Bishops Uphold Traditional Line in Kuala Lampur
1998 – Western liberals clash with third world bishops at Lambeth Conference over homosexuality
2003 – In USA, homosexual Gene Robinson elected bishop of New Hampshire
In England, homosexual campaigner Geoffrey John appointed Cathedral Dean
Anglican Church of Canada condones same sex unions
Evangelicals call for American and Canadian Churches to be expelled from the communion
2004 – Archbishop Eames’ Commission fails to find a compromise
2005 – Same sex ‘civil partnerships’ legalised in Britain
Bishop Gene Robinson launches attack on Pope Benedict XVI
Anglican vicar ‘marries’ his partner and has blessing in church
Third World Bishops Call on Archbishop to ‘take action’
Church of England Evangelicals get their own bishop and conduct illicit ordinations.
