Ruth Gledhill has reposted an interview she did with Dean Jeffrey John in 2003 when John was chosen to be the Bishop of Reading and then forced out by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, before taking office. John, who is gay, has a partner, and they have had their relationship recognized by the state, under the English law that permits civil unions. However, the relationship is a celibate one. Unsurprisingly, that has not mollified critics who, in other instances, argue that it is Bishop Gene Robinson’s behavior, not his orientation that is objectionable.
An excerpt:
Through all this, he was battling with the emerging awareness of his sexuality. “I was conscious of it from quite an early age, and that it was probably going to bring problems. I certainly resisted and fought it. I wrestled hugely with it and prayed about it, as I think so many gay people do.
“The issue of celibacy never really arose. I was aware that there was a great deal of homosexuality in the Church, which confused me. I was aware that quite a lot of clergy got into trouble about it and that quite a lot of people led disordered lives. I was determined that I was going to try to work out a viable way of life which would not get me into that kind of mess, a way of life which was honest and which was compatible with faith.”
Publicly, however, the Church remained in denial. “There is a great deal of wisdom in the Church about it but it is all in private, mainly through the confessional and through spiritual direction. People would offer celibacy as the safest, most positive, way of living if that was possible. But if it was not, and if it was felt that people were at risk of falling into promiscuity, the next best thing was to find a partner and be faithful and find some security that way.
“But that was the sort of advice that could only be given privately, it could never be stated openly. It seemed there was a private morality, a Christian one, but one that could never be talked about openly. Probably that is the way it has always been dealt with, certainly in the middle Church and with the Anglo-Catholics. But that way of dealing with it has led to the mess we are in now. There have been centuries of double thinking.”
Pluralist has some thoughts.
On the Guardian’s Web site, Stephen Bates provides an excellent primer on how Anglican conservatives prevailed upon Rowan Williams to sack John the first time around. He notes:
There is no doubt that John would like a bishopric and is qualified for one, but the source of the latest rumour is intriguing. It comes from the Rev David Anderson, one of the American conservatives who led the protests against the election of Gene Robinson and who was assiduous in spreading lies about him. (Did he subsequently apologise for bearing false witness about Robinson – what do you think?) You might ask what the appointment of the bishop of Bangor has to do with someone living in Atlanta, Georgia, especially given the church’s supposed agreement not to trespass on events in other provinces, but of course, Anderson is part of an international coalition ever vigilant against gay clergy. One of Anderson’s close associates is Canon Chris Sugden of Oxford, one of the campaigners against John in 2003 and now an organiser of the conservative coalition known as Gafcon whose member bishops boycotted Archbishop Williams’s recent Lambeth conference. And, funnily enough, Sugden’s daughter, Joanna, is employed as deputy to the Times’ religion correspondent who broke the story. Of course, this may all be a coincidence.