Archbishop Backs Off Ordaining Homosexuals
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who has acknowledged ordaining a practicing homosexual while serving in Wales, says he probably won’t do it again.
He told a church newspaper that he sees no theological objection to women bishops, but said that if any are consecrated in England, the church might need a separate jurisdiction for dissenting traditionalists.
The archbishop took office this week as leader of the Church of England and 77 million Anglicans and Episcopalians worldwide.
Anglican bodies in Canada, the United States and New Zealand have women bishops, and that step has been approved in principle by Anglicans elsewhere.
On homosexuality, Williams abstained when a 1998 international conference of Anglican bishops strongly endorsed a resolution stating that active gay relationships are “incompatible with Scripture.”
But he said the resolution “says what the mind of the church is. I feel, in my public position, that I am bound to live with that.”
However, Williams said, “I think the question is worth asking” whether those who say the Bible condemns all homosexual behavior are properly interpreting Scripture.
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