As Lambeth nears, we are starting to notice some interesting items in the U.K. Press. Here are a few items that caught our attention this morning:
The Telegraph reports that the Archbishop of Wales supports the consecratation of gay bishops:
The Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, told The Sunday Telegraph that practising homosexuals should not be barred from becoming bishops.
He accused conservative Anglicans of being “exclusive” and narrow-minded in their opposition to gay clerics.
His comments, which come on the eve of the Lambeth Conference – the Anglican communion’s ten-yearly gathering of bishops – are set to inflame the bitter controversy over homosexuality.
Dr Morgan said that he was in agreement with the decision of the American church five years ago to consecrate the homosexual cleric Gene Robinson as a bishop – the move which has pushed the Anglican church to the brink of schism.
The Independent reports on Bishop Gene Robinson’s visit to the U.K. despite the lack of an invitation to Lambeth:
“I’m the first elected bishop not to be invited to the conference since it began in 1867,” the Rt Rev Robinson told the IoS. “I must be a pretty scary guy.” Used to inspiring deep feelings, he wore a bullet-proof vest to his consecration in 2003 after receiving “numerous and credible” death threats.
Tomorrow he will appear at the Southbank Centre in London for the premiere of the controversial documentary For the Bible Tells Me So, where the acclaimed actor and gay rights campaigner Sir Ian McKellen – who says “the church has to grow up” – will be at his side.
He will then travel to the University of Kent, where the conference is being held. He may speak at a fringe meeting but won’t be an official delegate, although many of his supporters from America and many other countries will be – and this has been enough to make many traditionalists stay away.
. . .
The film he will introduce tomorrow looks at several deeply Christian families in America, including his own, who discover that some of their children are gay and try to reconcile religious teaching with their love for their offspring.
Sir Ian McKellen told the IoS: “The argument [the church] is having now is similar to the argument in the military in which heads of the service predicted its disintegration if gay people were allowed in. That is nonsense. They thought it was a problem particular to the military, but really it was the same old homophobia that exists everywhere.”
The Press Association report of Bishop Robinson’s sermon can be found here. The Telegraph has coverage here.