The Church of Ireland has a new Primate and it will be interesting to learn whether Archbishop Henry Orombi, who has announced that he will not “sit” with our Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori at the upcoming Primates’ meeting in Tanzania.
Speaking on Radio Ulster in 2003, Bishop Alan Harper said: “if a relationship between homosexual males is creative of love as well as being permanent and lifelong I don’t think that I am able to say that it is intrinsically disordered. What I am very much concerned about is the problem of promiscuity which is a totally different issue. I’m not entering now into the question of whether or not a homosexual lifestyle as we see it is intrinsically more promiscuous than what we call a straight lifestyle. But I am concerned about faithfulness.” More here.
So that’s Ireland. And then there are Rowan Williams and John Sentamu, the archbishop of York, who will also be attending the meeting. They represent a Church that (sensibly) allows its clergy to enter into civil partnerships but expects them to remain celibate, although it (sensibly) makes no effort to police those partnerships.
But, at least so far, Bishop Jefferts Shori, is the only one whose invitation was in danger of being withheld, and the only one with whom Orombi has said he will not sit.
But it’s not because she’s a woman. Remember that. It’s because, she’s, um, tall. No wait, it is because she buttons her shirts on the wrong side. No wait, it’s because, because, because…