From Times Online
September 18, 2007
Archbishop calls secret service for gay clergy to halt slide towards schism
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Dr Rowan Williams is just returning from a three-month break, but the secret
communion is bound to destabilise his position further
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Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent of The Times
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is to hold a secret
Communion service for gay clergy and their partners in London.
Dr Williams will celebrate the eucharist at St Peters, Eaton Square the
Church of England parish that is known as the spiritual home to some of the
countrys most liberal and wealthy Anglican elite. There he will give an
address titled Present realities and future possibilities for lesbians and gay
men in the Church.
The event has been organised under Chatham House rules, which prevent any
disclosure of the discussions. The event will take place at 10am on November
29. A list of the names of those who will be present will be seen only by Dr
Williams. It will be shredded afterwards.
Among those attending will be the convenor, Chris Newlands, the chaplain to
the Bishop of Chelmsford, the Right Rev John Gladwin. Also present will be the
Vicar of St Peters, the Rev Nicholas Papadopulos, and the former chaplain to
the Bishop of Salisbury, the Right Rev David Stancliffe.
Dr Williamss mission to maintain the unity of the Anglican Communion, rent
with schism since the 2003 ordination of the gay Bishop Gene Robinson in the
US, has never appeared less likely to succeed. The disclosure of the event
could not have come at a time more likely to destabilise him. This week he is
due to attend a meeting of US Episcopal bishops to discuss the crisis. He has
returned from three months on holiday and sabbatical, working on a study of the
Russian writer Dostoevsky. His return has been marked by a Church in disarray.
African archbishops from the Global South group of churches have been
consecrating like-minded evangelical bishops from the US to pastor parishes
alienated by the Episcopal Churchs liberal drift. A new structure is in place
to facilitate a breakaway province in the US. There is speculation that at
least one African province could be close to consecrating a missionary bishop
in England.
The Rev Richard Kirker, of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, criticised
Dr Williams for trying to hold a Communion service in secret.
I dont think it is a good thing in many ways. The conditions of secrecy are
quite at variance with the openness of his meetings with a panoply of antigay
church leaders. We are astonished at the attempts to make the meeting
clandestine when it would be far better to have this in the open. The fact that
he wants to go there without anyone knowing hes going there makes it quite
clear that he has an attitude towards the event that he doesnt have at any
other meetings.
Details of the event were published on a website of the Church Society,
evangelical.org. The Rev David Phillips, its general secretary, said: The
secretive nature and circumstances of the meeting suggest they have something
to hide. Moreover, as is well known, there are clergy in the Church of England
who have refused to give assurances that they are celibate and bishops who,
contrary to their own agreed policy, apparently refuse to ask for such
assurances.
The Archbishop might have defended the meeting with such a group on the
grounds that he is engaged in a listening process. However, by leading the
Communion service he is clearly doing far more than just listening.
Chris Sugden, of the evangelical group Anglican Mainstream, said: It is
understandable that the Archbishop of Canterbury would wish to express support
and understanding for people who struggle with same-sex attraction. Many
Christian churches and organisations do that. He said that to do so in the
context of a service of Holy Communion was problematic. He said: The
teaching of the Bible, of the Anglican Communion and of the Church of England
is that active same-sex behaviour is contrary to the will of God for human
behaviour.
A spokesman for Dr Williams said: It should come as no surprise that the
Archbishop is meeting pastorally with clergy and others affected by the current
debates in the Church. Such encounters extend right across the range of
opinions within the Church. Few of these encounters ever reach the public
domain. That is as it should be.
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