The Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the world's Anglicans, has warned against demonising gay people.
Dr Rowan Williams was commenting on the controversy surrounding last
week's attack by an Anglican preacher on homosexuals at the funeral of
leading Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato.
The Archbishop made his remarks after a six day Anglican summit in Dublin.
Wednesday's murder of Mr Kato in Uganda followed his successful court
action against a newspaper for inciting hatred against gays.
The subsequent comments at his funeral by an Anglican preacher that
gays should abandon what they were doing caused uproar among the
congregation which included many of Mr Kato's gay friends.
On Sunday, Dr Williams echoed his condemnations of the affair and warned about the power of words in such controversies.
The Archbishop was speaking at the end of a six-day meeting of two
dozen leading Anglicans in the Catholic-run Eammaus retreat house in
north Dublin.
Seven of their brother bishops boycotted the gathering in protest
against the presence of Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori, the American
Primate who approves the ordination of homosexual bishops and the
blessing of gay unions.
The Primate of Uganda also boycotted this Dublin summit and there is
little prospect that he or the six others will attend such gatherings in
the near future.
But the organisers say that this does not affect their loyalty to the Anglican church.