For Immediate Release: March 30, 2000

Again, We're Not Going Back

At the end of the 1998 Lambeth Conference, Integrity issued a statement entitled, "We're Not Going Back." In reaction to the Communiqué from the Primates meeting in Portugal this week, we reiterate that statement.

The Communiqué states

"We urge all bishops to recognise that further public actions ['the public blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of declared non-celibate homosexuals'] strain the reality of mutual accountability in a global Communion, where what may seem obvious and appropriate in one context may be harmful and unacceptable in another."

In other contexts, Archbishop Carey and others have described these actions as "unilateral." Yet they continue to support and participate in "unilateral conversations" that exclude the very persons about whom they speak and make decisions. Such was the "conversation" at Lambeth 1998 and such was the "conversation" in Oporto. Such conversations have very little credibility, even when engaged in by those in authority.

We appreciate the need for the primates to meet together and share their experience of ministry in their various contexts, seeking mutual support and guidance. Such support and guidance in the Spirit of Christ is the glue of our Communion. Increasingly, however, we see a move toward centralized authority (under the guise of "accountability") and decision-making removed from the participation of the whole People of God. This development is deeply troubling and, we believe, is changing the very nature of our Communion. One of the larger conversations that desperately need to occur among us (and not just our bishops) is the very nature of the Church and the diversity of polity among the Provinces.

The issues that divide us in the Communion are many and significant, including very different ways of approaching such matters as divorce and remarriage, end-of-life issues, pastoral approaches to those with HIV/AIDS, the role of women in the Church, not to mention simply how we use and interpret Scripture. Lesbian and gay persons are becoming scapegoats for this broad range of division. This state of affairs is simply sinful.

We express the following additional concerns about the Communiqué:

• In the statement above we note an obsession with "public" acts. We have always been suspicious that many in the Church would be happy if lesbian and gay Christians would simply go back into silence. This obsession betrays the truth that this issue has little to do with theology and much to do with cultural bias and protection of some mythic image of the Church.

• We also note the seeming assumption that "bishops" are totally responsible for these "public acts." In the American context, at least, this simply does not reflect the realities of our polity. In truth, bishops have not been making "unilateral actions," but participating, according to their order, in actions that reflect the outcome of public processes that involve the whole People of God.

• The descriptions of the different realities in the Church reflect either a fundamental ignorance of the supporters of the full inclusion of lesbian and gay Anglicans or a fundamental bias against it. The Communiqué states

  "For some, new life in Jesus Christ, the movement from darkness to light, necessarily involves the recognition that homosexuality is part of the brokenness of human life which needs to be healed by the power of the Gospel. . . . For others, even if they share a traditional interpretation of biblical ethics, this should not be identified as the question on which the Church's integrity depends."

  Nowhere in the Communiqué is it even implied that a positive, affirming stance toward homosexual persons and their loving relationships is also one of the responses made to the Gospel by faithful people. Such an omission speaks against the credibility of a group calling for more dialog.

  The truth is that new life in Jesus Christ necessarily involves the recognition that lesbian and gay people are not only children of God, but that their expression of love^Öand the ministry that is supported by that love^Öis a reflection of the ministry of Christ that brings healing to a broken world.

  Our question is: When will the primates "recognise the seriousness and sincerity" of this understanding of our lives?

• We support the calls for dialog within the Communion, but we are frustrated by the lack of it. To date such dialog has either been limited exclusively to bishops or has involved carefully orchestrated meetings that allow for little actual exploration and encounter of real life and ministry. That is what we call for. The primates themselves say

  "We expect to see in one another a worshipping life, gratefully celebrating the sacraments given by the Lord Jesus and publicly proclaiming the Word of God in scripture. We expect to see a passion to share the unique good news of Jesus Christ. We expect that . . . we shall gratefully learn from each other aspects of the riches of Jesus Christ that no one local church could learn for itself in isolation. We also expect that, when we see in each other what we believe to be failure or unfaithfulness, there will be freedom for plain speaking and 'fraternal rebuke.' . . . But we also look for humility, self-examination, and a willingness to preserve those bonds of communion that reflect the unity we share.

We say in the strongest way possible, we expect these things as well. We expect these things as well in the discernment of our lives and ministries.

Having not had these expectations realized, we will begin to take our own responsibility for them. Since Lambeth we have been engaging in our own efforts to meet across provincial lines and we will step up these efforts. If true encounters meeting the above expectations will not come to us in the places of our ministries, we will go to the places of others to share our lives. We assume we will be welcome as brothers and sisters in Christ and fellow Anglicans.

We call on the primates and all bishops of the church to work directly with us and our partners in the Alliance of Lesbian and Gay Anglicans (ALGA) to ensure that this dialog and encounter happens. We believe our future ability as a Church to proclaim the Gospel to the whole world depends on it.

• Louie Crew's Anglican pages: http://newark.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/rel.html
• Louie Crew's home page: http://newark.rutgers.edu/~lcrew
• Send mail to: lcrew@newark.rutgers.edu

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