The
Archbishop of Canterbury has warned the Church of England that it had to face
up to a “revolution” in attitudes to homosexuality.
 |
| Mr Welby was enthroned earlier this month at Canterbury Cathedral Photo: Getty Images |
In his most
widely anticipated address since taking over the leadership of the Church, the
Most Rev Justin Welby insisted that it was now “absurd and impossible” to
ignore an “overwhelming” change in social attitudes.
In a
deliberate echo of Harold MacMillan’s 1950 speech which attacked apartheid in
South Africa, the Archbishop warned church leaders that they needed to reassess
their own attitudes to gay people – even if they do not “like it”.
While
insisting he had no immediate plans to change policy on issues such as gay
marriage, he announced a major campaign to curb anti-gay bullying in the Church
of England’s more than 5,000 schools.
He is
understood to have approached Stonewall, which led the campaign in favour of
gay marriage, to invite it into church schools to teach up to a million
children about homosexuality.
“We may or
may not like it but we must accept that there is a revolution in the area of
sexuality,” the Archbishop said.
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His comments,
signalling a dramatic change in tone from the established church, came in his
first address as Archbishop to the Church’s General Synod which is meeting in
York as it attempts to come up with a new solution to the fiasco over women
bishops.
In a
wide-ranging address he said that Britain, like other countries, is living
through a “time of revolutions” affecting the economic and political sphere but
also in social attitudes.
He
acknowledged a “radical” decline in religious affiliation, as borne out by the recent
census and other polling, as well as an “overwhelming” shift in public
attitudes on issues such as sexuality where “predictable attitudes” were
disappearing.
But he
insisted that the Church could benefit and even begin to grow again if it was
willing to “respond radically and imaginatively” to a changing world.
The
Archbishop, who visited Egypt last week, drew comparisons with the fast-moving
situation in the country.
"We
live in a time of revolutions,” he said.
“And the
trouble with revolutions is that once they start no-one knows where they will
go.”
Turning to
the “many revolutions” underway in Britain, he said: “The cultural and
political ground is changing, there is a revolution.
“Anyone who
listened to much of the Same Sex Marriage Bill Second Reading Debate in the
House of Lords could not fail to be struck by the overwhelming change of
cultural hinterland. Predictable attitudes were no longer there.
“The
opposition to the Bill - which included me and many other bishops - was utterly
overwhelmed, with amongst the largest attendance and participation and majority
since 1945.
“There was
noticeable hostility to the view of the churches”.
He admitted
that it had been “close to the bone” to evidence of young gay people driven to
suicide because of uncaring attitudes from churches.
“In some
things we change course and recognise the new context.
“In others
we stand firm because truth is not set by culture, nor morals by fashion.
“But let us
be clear, pretending that nothing has changed is absurd and impossible.”
Ben
Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, said: “Of course we will always help
an education provider in helping to tackle homophobic bullying in schools and
there are already several dozen Church of England schools working with
Stonewall.
“But the
cynic would be tempted to think perhaps that the Archbishop is trying to
distract attention from his failure to engage gay people - when they requested
it over the issue of marriage.”
Related Articles:
Question: Dear
Kryon: Regarding homosexuality or transsexuals. WHY are they the way they are
and WHY are they not accepted in mainstream society?
Answer:
[From the Kryon Office]
There is
often a tremendous amount of information on subjects that are not necessarily part
of the on-line magazine Q&A database. Kryon has been channelling for
fourteen years, with 9 books covering many, many topics. Homosexuality was one
of them from the very beginning. Please see our "Books index page"
for subjects contained in the Kryon books: [http://www.kryon.com/direct.html]
An excerpt
from Kryon Book 6, page 306
Question
from the book: Dear Kryon, I am gay, and an enlightened man. I live in an
American society that barely tolerates me, and actually has some laws against
my way of life. The church I used to belong to cast me out as being evil and
anti-God. I don't feel that I am violating some Human ethic. My love is as true
as any heterosexual, and I am a light worker. Tell me what I should know.
Answer from
the book: Dear one, less than two generations from now, there will be those who
find this book and laugh at the quaintness of this very question. Before I
answer, let me ask you and those reading this to examine a phenomenon about
Human society and "God."
Thirty
years ago, interracial marriage was considered to be wrong by the laws of God.
Now your society finds it common. The spiritual objections around it were
either dropped or "rewritten" by those divinely inspired and
authorized to do so. Therefore, your actual interpretations of the instructions
from God changed with your society's tolerance level--an interesting thing,
indeed, how the interpretations of God seem to change regularly to match a
changing culture!
The truth,
of course, is that you find yourself in a situation that is known to create a
test for you. Right now, in this time, you have agreed to come into your
culture with an attribute that may alienate you from friends and religious
followers. You have faced fear of rejection and have had to "swim
upstream," so to speak, just as an everyday life occurrence. Your
contract, therefore, has been set up well, and you are in the middle of it.
Additionally, like so many like you, you have a divine interest in yourselves!
You feel part of the spiritual family. What a dichotomy indeed, to be judged as
evil by those who are the high spiritual leaders--interpreting God for today's
culture.
Now I say
this: What is your intent? Is it to walk with love for all those around you and
become an enlightened Human Being in this New Age? Is it to forgive those who
see you as a spiritual blight on society? Can you have the kind of tolerance
for them that they seem not to have for you? Can you overlook the fact that
they freely quote their scriptures in order to condemn you, yet they don't seem
to have the love tolerance that is the cornerstone of their own message?
If the
answer is yes, then there is nothing else you must do. Your INTENT is
everything, and your life will be honored with peace over those who would cause
unrest, and tolerance for the intolerable. Your sexual attributes are simply
chemistry and setups within your DNA. They are given by agreement as gifts for
you to experience in this life. Look on them in this fashion, and be
comfortable with that fact that you are a perfect spiritual creation under
God--loved beyond measure--just like all humans. But then you know that,
don't you?
