Brody's Notes... Archbishop of Canterbury Apologises For Anti-Gay Remarks

 

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, delivers his presidential address to the General Synod February 9th, 2010.

Photograph By  Katie Collins  guardian.co.uk

By Brody Levesque (Bethesda, Maryland) Feb 9 | The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Rev. Rowan Williams, in his annual address to the General Synod of the Anglican Church today apologised for a series of Anti-Gay sentiments that he's expressed over this past year. Referring to LGBT Equality and civil rights, the Archbishop said; 

"That underlines a number of important things about the equality debates. One is that we all in fact recognise that communities and organisations have a certain liberty to define what belonging to them might entail; those who belong have to some extent chosen to live with the limits that a community has settled upon, even if they want to argue with those limits or seek to shift them. The limits may thus be a bit fluid; but whether and when they change is not to be decided from outside.

The second point, arising from the first, is that if we concede the right to government to settle matters for religious bodies in some areas, how do we resist it in others? The rights and dignities of gay and lesbian people are a matter of proper concern for all of us, and we assume with good reason, even, I should say, with good Christian reason, that the securing of these rights is obviously a mark of civilised and humane society. When those rights are threatened – as in the infamous legislation that was being discussed in Uganda – we quite rightly express repugnance."

He continues with an apology to the LGBT community; 

"The debate over the status and vocational possibilities of LGBT people in the Church is not helped by ignoring the existing facts, which include many regular worshipers of gay or lesbian orientation and many sacrificial and exemplary priests who share this orientation. There are ways of speaking about the question that seem to ignore these human realities or to undervalue them; I have been criticised for doing just this, and I am profoundly sorry for the carelessness that could give such an impression."

The Archbishop also made a plea for greater understanding and healing within the Church alluding to the fractious relations with both the American and African branches over the issues of Gays and the more recent provocative Ugandan Anti-Gay measure. He states that;

"Certain decisions made by some provinces impact so heavily on the conscience and mission of others that fellowship is strained or shattered and trust destroyed"

He then acknowledges;

"As I have said before, it may be that the Covenant creates a situation in which there are different levels of relationship between those claiming the name of Anglican. I don't at all want or relish this, but suspect that, without a major change of heart all round, it may be an unavoidable aspect of limiting the damage we are already doing to ourselves. I make no apology, though, for pleading that we try, through the Covenant, to discover an ecclesial fellowship in which we trust each other to act for our good – an essential feature of anything that might be called a theology of the Body of Christ."

The Archbishop then wrapped up his speech noting; 

"And we may be able to show to the world a face rather different from that anxious, self-protective image that is so much in danger of entrenching itself in the popular mind as the typical Christian position."