A letter from the Lesbian and Gay Christian Asscoation in the UK to the Archbishop of Canterbury
Dear Rowan,
Lesbian and gay Anglicans are deeply shocked by the failure of the recent meeting of Primates in Tanzania to condemn a new law in Nigeria that will imprison those who wish to openly debate a change of attitude to homosexuality in that country.
We are all keenly aware that the Nigerian Anglican church has been an avid promoter (some say the drafter) of this law which bizarrely claims to outlaw something (same-sex marriage) already not legally permissible in Nigeria. The darker and deeper purpose of this law is to prevent any “listening process” by criminalising those who would openly engage with such a process. When the Primates met at the Dromantine they issued a statement anathematising what this new Nigerian law sets out to do. As the Primates met in Dar es Salaam this legislation was being discussed in a public hearing of the Nigerian House of Representatives – yet you remained silent. At a time when many are loosing confidence in this or that group of Primates, we find ourselves loosing confidence in them all.
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A letter from the Lesbian and Gay Christian Asscoation in the UK to the Archbishop of Canterbury
Dear Rowan,
Lesbian and gay Anglicans are deeply shocked by the failure of the recent meeting of Primates in Tanzania to condemn a new law in Nigeria that will imprison those who wish to openly debate a change of attitude to homosexuality in that country.
We are all keenly aware that the Nigerian Anglican church has been an avid promoter (some say the drafter) of this law which bizarrely claims to outlaw something (same-sex marriage) already not legally permissible in Nigeria. The darker and deeper purpose of this law is to prevent any “listening process” by criminalising those who would openly engage with such a process. When the Primates met at the Dromantine they issued a statement anathematising what this new Nigerian law sets out to do. As the Primates met in Dar es Salaam this legislation was being discussed in a public hearing of the Nigerian House of Representatives – yet you remained silent. At a time when many are loosing confidence in this or that group of Primates, we find ourselves loosing confidence in them all.
The United Nations have had no difficulty recognising the purpose of this law as “an absolutely unjustified intrusion of an individual’s right to privacy and contravene Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that ‘(a)ll human beings are born equal in dignity and rights’, and point out “During the last session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Government of Nigeria expressed its view that the death penalty by stoning for “unnatural sexual acts” such as lesbianism and homosexuality may be considered “appropriate and just punishment”.”
I append the whole UN report for your study.
All the concerns addressed in my letter to you of 13 December 2004 remain unanswered and the failure of the Primates to even discus at Dar es Salaam the increasingly dangerous homophobia within the Communion is shameful. We would love to honour and respect our Primates as faithful shepherds, but we cannot as long as they deal with us as sheep to be slaughtered. If maintaining the “catholic” nature of the Anglican Communion can only be bought at the price ofyour silence and collusion with such calumnies you will not be surprised to know we will have
none of such catholicity.
Has the spiritual health of our Communion and its Primates sunk so low that they are willing to spend days preparing to outlaw the blessings of our loving relationships in America, while ignoring completely such an imminent threat to our lives and liberty?
With the Bill now having passed two readings in the Senate we await to see what the Bill will look
like when it becomes law. I am afraid to say, and do so with a very heavy heart, that it is clear you have failed your own test and lost much moral authority in this thankless process. It is hardly surprising then that we and
increasing numbers of faithful Anglicans find any attempt to give the Primates the “enhanced”
authority they seek through the Covenant, risible.
We note you continue to lament how lesbian and gay people are treated with contempt and ignored, yet we see little hope of this changing. Tell me, if America has failed to follow the teaching of the first part of Lambeth 1.10, and so sets itself apart from the Communion, why is it that those who act as the Nigerian Church and defy its teaching on “listening” are not in the same position? Sadly we do not like the look of your new “catholic” church – it seeks order but finds ordure.
Yours sincerely
Richard Kirker (Revd)