St. Thomas the Apostle Newsletter

Says he has "no problem" with celibate gay Bishops

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has said that he doesn't regard gay bishops as a problem for the Anglican Communion as long as they are celibate. His comments were made in an interview with journalist Ginny Dougary of The Times of London. In the wide-ranging interview that navigated topics of evolution, young people and the church, music, politics, family life and facial hair, Williams said: "[T]here's no problem about a gay person who's a bishop. It's about the fact that there are traditionally, historically, standards that the clergy are expected to observe. So there's always a question about the personal life of the clergy."

Dougary -- asking the archbishop "what has happened to our liberal-thinking 'beardy lefty,' as he once called himself," -- noted that Williams had written as part of his 1989 essay The Body's Grace: "If we are looking for a sexual ethic that can be seriously informed by our Bible, there is a good deal to steer us away from assuming that reproductive sex is a norm."

In response to Dougary reading out the text from The Body's Grace, Williams said, "That's what I wrote as a theologian, you know, putting forward a suggestion. That's not the job I have now."

Fourteen years after penning that essay, Williams, facing intense pressure from conservative evangelicals in the Church of England, asked openly gay and celibate priest Jeffrey John in 2003 to withdraw his name from the running as bishop of Reading. The following year, John was installed as the dean of St. Alban's Cathedral, a position he still holds.

But in 2010, leaked information to the London media revealed that John's name was again being considered for a Church of England bishopric, this time in the Diocese of Southwark. Following another round of conservative Anglican furor, John's name was reportedly withdrawn from the list as a possible contender.

In The Times interview, Williams described the John matter as "a wound in the whole ministry from the start... making the judgment that the cost to the church overall was too great to be borne at that point."

"The question about gay people is not about their dignity or the respect they deserve as gay people, it's a question about a particular choice of life, a partnership, and what the church has to say about that," Williams added.

U.K.-based Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell on Sept. 27 called Williams "inconsistent and hypocritical" and described him as "a deeply conflicted soul. He's torn between his kind, liberal inner heart and a seemingly heartless collusion with Anglican advocates of anti-gay prejudice and discrimination."

In some parts of the Anglican Communion, particularly in Africa, homosexuality is illegal and punishable by hefty prison sentences or, in some countries, the death penalty.

The Anglican Communion currently has two openly gay bishops, both of whom are part of the U.S.-based Episcopal Church, although some bishops have previously disclosed their homosexual orientation once they'd retired. Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire was elected in 2003 and became the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.

The communion's second openly gay bishop, Mary Douglas Glasspool, was elected in December 2009 to serve as a suffragan bishop in Los Angeles. She was consecrated in May. Some conservative Anglicans have distanced themselves from these actions, saying that homosexuality is incompatible with Scripture and that gay and lesbian Christians should be barred from serving in ecclesiastical orders. Others have left the Episcopal Church in protest and joined breakaway Anglican entities that are not officially recognized as part of the Anglican Communion.

Williams has expressed his disapproval of these action in the Episcopal Church. As a result of Glasspool's consecration and at Williams' request, Episcopal Church members were removed from the Anglican Communion's ecumenical dialogues.

Relations with the Roman Catholic Church, strained by the Anglican Communion's recent developments concerning human sexuality issues and the ordination of women, also were addressed during The Times interview. Dougary asked Williams if Anglicans were "defecting in droves" following the announcement in November 2009 that the Vatican was making provisions for former Anglicans to enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.

"No, they're not. One or two, and there'll be more, I think," he said. "A lot of people in the Anglican Communion don't think much of me and don't think much of the way the communion is going -- but that doesn't mean they want to be Roman Catholics."

The interview included several light-hearted moments. When Dougary asked Williams when he last shaved, the bewhiskered archbishop responded: "Apart from just scraping the cheeks occasionally? Probably when I was 21."

"Have you got anything to hide?" Dougary asked.

"A weak chin, they always say -- or spots, or something," Williams replied.

By Matthew Davis, Editor & International correspondent Episcopal News