Antonia Honeywell has written a letter on her blog to the Archbishop of Canterbury – telling him of the dangers of his statements and votes opposing marriage equality. A guest visiting her church stood up and began to speak:
A Lesley Pilkington, who had been invited – or who has asked, it’s not clear – to request the congregation’s prayers for something important. She introduces herself as a Christian psychotherapist/counsellor (slight alarm bells there, but nothing too noisy), and begins her tale.
It went like this: At a conference in London, a young man had approached her. He was gay and didn’t want to be; could she help him to change? But of course she could. A couple of ‘very successful’ sessions in, the young man told her that he was a journalist, that this was a sting and that he was reporting her to the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. She had duly been struck off, had appealed, and the appeal was due to be heard the following Wednesday, hence the need for prayers.
But she didn’t stop there. No. We had to offer these prayers because we, the congregation, didn’t realize how widespread this evil is becoming, how insidious its hold, how terrible in its consequences. We have to use the power of prayer to fight for what we believe. As Christians, we have to open our eyes to what is happening in society. Satan is at work and we have to resist him. Homosexuality is not only contrary to everything we believe, it undermines everything we believe, and the consequences of sitting by and allowing it to run rampant in society are too terrible to contemplate. We are already seeing them.
Honeywell responded with deep caring for her lesbian and gay friends then “By this time the vicar was inviting me to sit down. And Lesley Pilkington – calm, beautifully coiffeured and tailored and looking so sure of herself– pointed at me with a shrug and said, ‘You see, this is how Satan works.’”
Honeywell continues her letter with a plea to the Archbishop ….
read it here.
h/t to Bishop Alan Wilson
Today 2 bishops have commented against the Church of England policies. From Thinking Anglicans:
The Bishop of Worcester, John Inge is reported in the Worcester News as saying “Attitude to gays is in need of rethink.”
The Bishop of Gloucester, Michael Perham is reported in the Gloucestershire Citizen “Bishop of Gloucester apologises for church treatment of gay community”