ARCHBISHOP of Wales Barry Morgan today warned any attempt to find a quick-fix solution to issues dividing the 80 million-member Anglican Communion will “end in tears”. He told the Church in Wales’ Governing Body in Lampeter that:
- Sexuality should not be a Communion-breaking issue;
- Churches must not be required to sign-up to a new set of binding beliefs;
- The church has clamped down on homosexuality but not on heterosexual sex outside marriage.
Dr Morgan said that while there was a focus on homosexuality “most people who come to be married in Anglican churches in Britain live together beforehand”.
In his report on the global gathering of bishops for the summer’s Lambeth Conference, he said: “The fundamental question in all of this is whether homosexuality is a matter of choice or not because that should make a difference to the way it is regarded.”
The Communion has been transformed through the creation of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, a continent-crossing group of conservative churches formed at the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) – staged in Jerusalem in June 2008.
The church leaders who attended – many of whom boycotted Lambeth – backed the Jerusalem Declaration which committed them to the “unchangeable standard of Christian marriage between one man and one woman”.
Dr Morgan said: “[One] of the glories of Anglicanism has been about being held together by our beliefs as contained in historic creeds and formulas but not by agreement to particular statements about that faith in each generation. That is the difference between belonging to a Communion rather than a confession.”
Further criticising the conservatives, he said: “Moreover, GAFCON members do not believe in engaging in dialogue with people with whom they disagree on human sexuality because it means being open to the possibility that the position of one’s opponent might be true when the plain sense reading of Scripture shows in their view that it is not.”
Calling for the freedom for churches to make their own interpretations of the Bible’s teaching on this issue, he said: “Why is it that as far as Anglicanism is concerned, we do not interpret the Scriptures literally when it comes to issues such as usury or marriage and divorce to name but two, but insist on a literal interpretation of texts that allegedly deal with homosexuality? It is difficult to believe that we have boxed ourselves into this particular corner.
“Allegorical, symbolical and mythical interpretations are allowed and have been allowed from the time of the Fathers to the present day for every part of the Bible, except for those that deal with sexuality and one is also left wondering why there cannot be diversity on this issue as on so many other moral issues.”
However, he acknowledged the severity of the crisis unleashed in 2003 when the Rev Gene Robinson – a divorced man with a male partner – was elected bishop of New Hampshire.
He said there was no doubt “the consecration of a bishop living in a same-gender union has caused deep upset and outrage and questions both the view of Scripture and tradition, has hampered mission in some parts of the Communion and led to the persecution of Christians in others, and has impaired ecumenical relationships as our Roman Catholic observers told us.”
But he added: “On the other hand, in other places, it has sent positive messages about the place of homosexuals in God's church.”
A highlight of Lambeth for Dr Morgan was a march on London by the bishops to call on the world’s governments to honour the UN Millennium Goals for the eradication of extreme poverty.
He said: “I am left wondering that had we spent our energy on promoting these goals, rather than on debating sexuality over the last 10 years, how different things might be now. As the Prime Minister reminded us, 10 million children each year die avoidable deaths from TB, polio, diphtheria and malaria. 77 million children have no schools to attend and 100 million people face starvation in our world today.”
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(Source: WalesOnline.co.uk)