A former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton, has
criticised an Oxford college for appearing to side with students who
objected to a Christian conference he addressed there.Sir Ivor Roberts, president of Trinity College, has expressed regret at the row that has blown up over its hosting the event following complaints over the organisation's opposition to same-sex marriage.
Sir Ivor said staff had "unwittingly" hosted the three-day conference by Christian Concern that took place in March, because it was booked under the name of a second organisation, the Wilberforce Academy.
"We have set up a review of our procedures for college use by outside agencies," he said.
"Trinity regrets that any current or old members were upset by the fact that we gave houseroom unwittingly to Christian Concern," the student news website Cherwell reported him as saying.
Christian Concern has links with the Christian Legal Centre which has taken up high profile cases such as that of the Relate counsellor Gary MacFarlane sacked for not confirming he would offer therapy to gay couples and nurse Shirley Chaplain who refused to stop wearing a necklace with a cross.
In a letter to Sir Ivor, Lord Carey accused the college of being intolerant towards Christian groups, The Telegraph reported today. "Christian Concern is not an extreme organisation that opposes diversity or equality.
"It is mainstream and many of its concerns are shared by the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church and other bodies," he said.
Sir Ivor told The Tablet: "I'd never heard of Christian Concern until the beginning of last month and our conference was organised ... without any awareness of the unpleasantness that would be caused." Regarding the activities of Christian Concern, he said: "I have no views on that at all".