A controversial bishop has denounced the head of the Roman Catholic church in England and Wales for portraying Facebook as a suicide risk.In a hard hitting statement Bishop Jonathan Blake, who heads the Open Episcopal Church, warned that there were far greater risks to relationships posed by the Roman Catholic church than there were from internet sites.
The outspoken Rev Blake, the Bishop of Greater London, attack was in response to an interview in the Sunday Telegraph in which Archbishop Vincent Nichols said social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace encouraged teenagers to view friendship as a commodity and increased the risk of suicide.
Bishop Blake, who was criticised for blessing the civil wedding of the late television personality Jade Goody, said: "So the Archbishop of Westminster warns about the dangers of electronic isolation and relationships mediated through the keyboard. Of course there are dangers and wise parents and balanced adults will guard against them.
"However, there are greater dangers to relationships perhaps in Roman Catholicism. I have counselled those heartbroken that a member of their family had been snatched from them into a closed order of Nuns, others sucked into the loneliness of the celibate priesthood, many more isolated into religious fanaticism, others damaged by the homophobia, authoritarianism and sexism enshrined in church policy."
The Archbishop of Westminster had warned that relationships were already being weakened by the decline of face to face meetings and the telephone. "Facebook and MySpace might contribute towards communities but I'm wary about it," he said. "Among young people often a key factor in their committing suicide is the trauma of transient relationships."
But Bishop Blake, who left the Church of England in 1994 to become an "independent minister", said the church should encourage young people to join networking sites rather than try to put them off. He said: "Religious bigotry has fuelled the fragmentation of societies, the increase in prejudice and reactionary thinking. Strange, because the Sacrament of the Mass is all about Holy Communication.
"So when Facebook and other social networking sites allow people to communicate, to reconnect, to discover the thrill of friendships and to provide the resources to maintain them and explore them perhaps the church should be encouraging and supportive."
Bishop Blake, from Gillingham, Kent, was ordained to the priesthood in 1982 and served in the Bradford and Rochester Dioceses. He specialises in baptisms and wedding blessings. He joined forces two years ago with another bishop, Richard Palmer, to set up the Open Episcopal Church, and was consecrated by him. They have since been joined by another bishop, Michael Wilson.
The church claims legitimacy and Apostolic succession through the Old Catholic Church, an organisation founded in England in 1908 that claims unbroken succession from England's pre-Reformation Church.
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