Anglicans Decry Homosexuality, Back Abstinence

In a dramatic vote reflecting the growing influence of churches in developing countries, the world’s Anglican bishops Wednesday voted to reaffirm traditional sexual mores--denouncing homosexuality as contrary to Scripture and insisting on sexual abstinence outside marriage.

The action by the bishops of the 70-million-member worldwide Anglican Communion--which includes the Episcopal Church in the United States--marked the first time that the emotion-laden issue of homosexuality, which has sharply divided American churches, has been debated at the international level in a major Christian denomination.

The importance of the vote goes beyond the immediate issues of sexuality, said Bishop James Stanton of Dallas, a prominent traditionalist and former rector at a parish in Glendale: “The center of our church is shifting to other parts of the world.”

The debate was intense, both inside and outside the sweltering conference hall at the University of Kent. Before Wednesday’s debate began, a bishop from Nigeria dressed down a gay activist outside the conference hall, warning that he should repent or perish.

Inside the hall, Bishop Alexander John Malik of Lahore, Pakistan, declared that “Scripture calls homosexuality a perversion, or abomination. It says homosexuals will not enter the kingdom of God.” Yet traditionalists were being condemned by liberals for being “homophobic,” Malik objected.

“If we speak against homosexuality it is certainly not gay bashing, but a matter of conscience, faith and doctrine,” he said. “What if they ask them [liberal bishops] to bless their pets, their cats and dogs?”

African bishops were particularly vocal, declaring that liberal positions taken by American bishops were undermining the ability of the churches in Africa to stand up against Islam.

“This false teaching from parts of the Anglican Communion is causing serious damage and scandal to Christ and his church,” Bishop Eustace Kamanyire of Uganda told the conference. “It is a hindrance to the witness and growth of the church.”

But Suffragan (assistant) Bishop Catherine S. Roskam of New York said the resolution condemning homosexuality would be “evangelical suicide” in her diocese, which has an active ministry to gay and lesbian people.

The debate was “quite difficult and painful,” said Archbishop of Canterbury George L. Carey, an evangelical conservative who hailed the vote as a reaffirmation of Scriptural morality.

“I stand wholeheartedly with traditional Anglican orthodoxy. I see no room or description in the entire body of Christ for any sexual activity outside of matrimony of a husband and wife,” he said.

While Carey is a conservative, many Anglican and Episcopal bishops in Europe and the United States have supported opening the church to gay clergy. But the Anglicans, and many other Christian churches, are experiencing their greatest growth in the Third World, where church leaders are overwhelmingly conservative.

At the current meeting of Anglican bishops from 160 nations--the Lambeth Conference, which is held once every 10 years--traditionalists from the West have formed an alliance with the bishops from the developing nations on issues such as human sexuality.

A Victory for Traditionalist Bishops

The result was a resolution--approved 526 to 70, with 45 abstentions--that was worded even more strongly than many traditionalist bishops had hoped for when the conference opened last month.

The resolution approved by the bishops rejects “homosexual practice” as being incompatible with the Bible. It states that the churches will not endorse the blessing of same-sex unions or the ordination of non-celibate gay men and lesbians. And it declares that sex must be restricted to a man and a woman in marriage and that all others--both homosexuals and unmarried heterosexuals--must remain abstinent.

The debate comes after several years of discussions within the Anglican Communion, including sometimes bitter letters between opposing bishops--and strategizing reminiscent of a political convention.

The resolution made a few concessions to liberals within the church, declaring in reference to homosexuals that “we wish to assure them that they are loved by God and that all baptized, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the body of Christ.”

In an interview, Los Angeles Episcopal Bishop Frederick H. Borsch, who voted against the resolution but did not speak during the debate, stressed that point. Los Angeles Suffragan Bishop Chester L. Talton also voted against the resolution. The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold III, presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church, abstained.

But aside from a few gestures to the liberal side, the conservative majority here easily pushed through one amendment after another that strengthened the language of the resolution. The series of amendments moved one liberal prelate to warn that the conference was “steadily eroding” what he called the Anglican Communion’s face of compassion. “Gradually, bit by bit, step by step, it is turning into a face of judgment and condemnation,” Archbishop David P. Crowley of British Columbia said.

Opinions varied on the resolution’s impact in the United States, where some bishops, including Borsch, have permitted the ordination of non-celibate gay men and lesbians. While Borsch has said that he cannot officially endorse the blessing of same-sex unions until the national church approves such rites, some priests in the Los Angeles diocese continue to preside at such ceremonies.

The Anglican Communion is far less centralized than the Roman Catholic Church, for example. Conference resolutions are not binding on the 36 self-governing national churches or provinces in the Anglican Communion. On the other hand, many bishops in the U.S. church may hesitate to support moves domestically that would create divisions within the Anglican Communion internationally.

One of the most liberal Episcopal bishops, the Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong of Newark, N.J., insisted the resolution would have no impact. Spong, who uncharacteristically did not speak during the debate, said afterward that gays and lesbians had made too much progress to turn back.

“Once you take a prejudice and put it out in the clear light of day, the prejudice is finally doomed,” Spong said. “Once you free the slaves, you never re-enslave the slaves. Once you make women capable of voting, you never take it away from them. Once gay and lesbian people come into society, there will never be a backward movement.”

But Stanton predicted that bishops who have been sitting on the fence or quietly ordaining non-celibate gay men and lesbians may think twice before continuing, in view of the resolution.

“We’re making clear where the center is,” said Stanton. “It’s not a weak demonstration. It’s not a close vote. It’s overwhelming. That’s just a gift of God.”

The vote “supports us who for many years have felt like lonely voices in the American church,” said the Rt. Rev. John David Schofield, a prominent Episcopal conservative and bishop of the 14-county Diocese of San Joaquin in California’s Central Valley.

The subject of sexuality has long created deep divisions among Anglicans. Last year, 80 traditionalist bishops and other representatives of Anglican provinces in the Southern Hemisphere met in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, and decried the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex unions.

“We are deeply concerned that the setting aside of biblical teaching in such actions . . . calls into question the authority of the Holy Scriptures. This is totally unacceptable to us,” the statement said.

Spong, speaking for more liberal American bishops, fired back with a letter in December that said the conservative declaration, and a similar statement from a meeting of traditionalist bishops in Dallas, reflected “an appalling ignorance, an appalling use of Holy Scripture and an appalling prejudice against gay and lesbian people that is an embarrassment to the Christian faith.”