UPDATE: The Very Rev. Jeffrey John, Dean of St. Alban’s, says the church is “the last refuge of prejudice” in The Telegraph today:
Dr John told The Times: “Exactly the same love and commitment are possible between two people of the same sex as between two people of different sexes, and it is not immediately clear why the Church should regard such a relationship as ethically or spiritually inferior to a heterosexual marriage.
“The fact that fifty years on [after the decriminalisation of homosexuality] the Church is seen as enemy No 1 of gay people is a disaster, both for our own morale and for our mission to the country. We have become the last refuge of prejudice.”
In 2007 the BBC News reported:
South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has criticised the Anglican Church and its leadership for its attitudes towards homosexuality.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4, he said the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, had failed to demonstrate that God is “welcoming”.
He also repeated accusations that the Church was “obsessed” with the issue of gay priests.
He said it should rather be focusing on global problems such as Aids.
“Our world is facing problems – poverty, HIV and Aids – a devastating pandemic, and conflict,” said Archbishop Tutu, 76.
“God must be weeping looking at some of the atrocities that we commit against one another.”
“In the face of all of that, our Church, especially the Anglican Church, at this time is almost obsessed with questions of human sexuality.”
Criticising Dr Williams, he said: “Why doesn’t he demonstrate a particular attribute of God’s which is that God is a welcoming God.”
Thanks to an alert reader who noted that the Tutu story is from 2007. More coffee needed on the “left coast” today. ~ed.