English Bishop Backs Gay Marriage: Queer Ferment in the Anglican Church.

For years, the major focus of controversy in the Church of England has been over the appointment of women bishops. That debate has now been all but settled (even the opponents agree that change is inevitable). Issues around full LGBT inclusion in church will now move to centre stage.

One sign of this is a bishop who has spoken out publicly in favour of gay marriage:

The new Bishop of Salisbury, The Rt Revd Nick Holtam, has spoken out in support of gay marriage.

Bishop Holtam made the comments in an interview with the Times today ahead of the meeting of the General Synod next week, where civil partnerships in churches and equal marriage are to be discussed.

He said: “We are living in a different society. If there’s a gay couple in The Archers, if there’s that form of public recognition in popular soaps, we are dealing with something which has got common currency. All of us have friends, families, relatives, neighbours who are, or who know someone, in same-sex partnerships.”

He said he was “no longer convinced” marriage should be between a man and a woman.

He continued: “I think same-sex couples that I know who have formed a partnership have in many respects a relationship which is similar to a marriage and which I now think of as marriage.

Bishop of Salisbury Backs Gay Marriage - Pink News

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Lesbian priests marry, Boston cathedral, 1/1/2010"][/caption]

He is not alone. The Times interview, in which he was speaking about full marriage, followed an earlier report that over 100 Anglican clergy from the diocese of London have signed a petition asking that the synod next week agree to allow local discretion on conducting civil partnership ceremonies on church. The background is that parliament last year changed the civil partnership legislation, which previously prohibited these from being conducted on religious premises, to permit such premises where church authorities give explicit approval. Up to now, the public stance of the Church of England has been that permission will not be granted. Next week's synod will show that there is significant opposition to that stance.

Gay Bishop Charles Otis, on Homosexuality and Faith

Bishop Gene Robinson is  the best known openly gay bishop, but there are many others. Bishop Otis Charles, who came out in 1993 after his retirement from full time ministry, is one of them.  He is also legally married: he and his husband held a ceremony in San Francisco in 1993, then wed legally in California in 2008.

While still serving as Bishop of Utah, he did not disclose in own sexuality, but did advocate openly for a relaxation of the barriers to ministry in the Episcopal Church. As a result, Utah came to be seen as a relatively liberal place of refuge for gay men and lesbians in the Episcopal Church.

[caption id="attachment_21515" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Otis Charles and Husband, 1993"][/caption]

This year's Sundance Film Festival, features a documentary film about that other, better known gay bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.  " Love Free or Die", which also includes reference to Bishop Charles, will  be screened on Monday January 23rd, and preceded by a worship service on Sunday 22nd.   QSalt Lake has a piece on Bishop Charles, illustrating the dramatic contrast between the conditions for gay clergy when he was first ordained in 1951, and those prevailing today:

After 60 years in the clergy, including 40 years as an Episcopalian bishop, Otis Charles, 85, was one of three openly gay bishops within the faith, he said. Although, when he first entered seminary in the 1950s homosexuality was not talked about, let alone embraced, by many in the church.

“I never would have imagined how far we’ve come – in the church and in general. It’s a different world. I never would have imagined, when I was first entering seminary, that I would be able to be married to my husband and enjoy all the benefits that come with that,” Charles said. “In my lifetime I’ve seen the onward movement from being outside of the movement into the ongoing life of the community in ways that I never would have imagined.”

-  QSaltLake

We must remember though, that we have not arrived at this place of moderate tolerance without a great deal of preparatory work, by a great number of people. Bishop Charles was one of the pioneers:

The path to arrive as a happily married, accepted bishop was more than three decades in the making; the issue of openly gay clergy members was first raised in 1976 during a general assembly where Charles testified about the need to accept gay clergy members, although he was not open about his own sexuality. In 1979 he was a member of a coalition of leaders who signed a letter in opposition to the newly enacted policy prohibiting gays and lesbians from being ordained into the ministry.

Charles, along with eight members from the Utah delegation, opposed the church’s new position, which led to Utah having a liberal reputation.

“We were kind of a place of refuge for gay or lesbian individuals who wanted to be ordained and their home bishop wouldn’t accept them or recognize them,” Charles said. “The authorities in the diocese of Utah supported more than one such person. And so the dioceses in Utah have a spirit of openness for a long time.”

-  QSaltLake

There also, quite obviously, many barriers to overcome, especially in the Catholic Church - but I will leave those out of this post. For now, let us simply celebrate Bishop Charles, Bishop Robinson, and the other pioneers on the road to LGBT inclusion in church. I look forward to this documentary film becoming more widely disseminated.

[caption id="attachment_21517" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Bishop Gene Robinson (right), Mark Andrew at their civil union, 2008"][/caption]

[Correction:

An earlier version of this post stated that the documentary film "Love Free or Die" is about Bishop Otis Charles, but in fact it is primarily about Bishop Gene Robinson].

Related articles

• Trouble in Adelaide over Anglican gay clergy.
• A Gay Priest's Journey, From Exile to Reconciliation
• Catholic Teaching on Same - Sex Relationships: An "Ongoing Discussion"?
• Huffpost's "15 Inspiring LGBT Religious Leaders". Who's Not on the List?

• African Religious Leaders Standing Against Anti-Gay Oppression: Naomi Abraham Reports (bilgrimage.blogspot.com)
• Chris Bryant: The Church of England needs to forget its silliness about homosexuality (independent.co.uk)
• Church of Ireland statement on human sexuality (thinkinganglicans.org.uk)

Sheffield synod votes in favour of women bishops

In the Anglican communion, the squabbles over gay bishops and women bishops are closely linked. The threats of secession,  and calls for special treatment for priests and parishes who dissent on women bishops, have been widely reported. It is worth noting therefore, the less widely reported, slow and undramatic progress of the diocesan votes to ratification of the synodal decision to approve women bishops. 

In the latest vote, the Sheffield diocese has joined those voting in support of the proposal. I do not have an up to date tally of all the diocesan votes so far, but the last time I saw one, the total number of votes against was - nil.

The simple fact is, that at least inside the UK, the opposition to women bishops is a distinctly minority position. There will in the relatively near future be women bishops, selected from the large pool of excellent women priests, and those few who remain opposed will quickly get used to them - just as after initial misgivings. most Anglicans quickly got used to female priests. 

In the same way, there will also quickly follow widespread approval for gay or lesbian bishops. It's only a matter of time.

"REPRESENTATIVES of the Anglican Church in the Sheffield region have voted in support of women bishops.

A motion was carried by 37 votes to 28 with six abstentions. The Bishop of Sheffield, the Rt Rev Steven Croft, voted in favour at a meeting of the Sheffield Diocesan Synod last Saturday.

The outcome indicated the laity was more convinced that the clergy. Laity voted 23-16 in favour with one abstention, clergy 13-12 with five abstentions."

- Sheffield Telegraph

Women Bishops, UK

To judge from the press commentary, you could easily think that the Anglican Church was deeply divided over the issue of women bishops. In fact, repeating a pattern seen in the Catholic Church on many issues of sexual ethics, it is now clear that the church as a whole has no problem: the noise is coming from a handful of dissidents, and a significant further proportion of the resistance is coming from some moderates who themselves support the change, but are reluctant to upset the conservative wing over women (and gay) bishops - yet appear to be less concerned about the very real injury done to the women and gay men they are excluding. Fortunately, the British people as a whole are a different story entirely:  research shows that only 10% oppose women bishops. From Ekklesia:

Only one in 10 British adults oppose the introduction of women bishops in the Church of England, according to an independent poll conducted by YouGov. Pollsters found that 63 per cent support the move, while 24 per cent have no view and three per cent are unsure of their opinion. The poll, which was not commissioned by any body external to YouGov, comes shortly after heated debate about women bishops at the Church of England's General Synod. Supporters of openly gay bishops also outnumber opponents. Thirty-nine per cent say they are in favour, with 27 per cent against. In addition, 31 per cent have no opinion, while three per cent say they don't know. The figures are likely to reinforce the popular perception that Christians are reactionary and reluctant to change. Christians who support sexual inclusion argue that churches should be at the forefront of social change, not struggling to keep up. The researchers found that women were more likely than men not only to support women bishops, but also to support gay bishops.