New Archbishop Distances Himself Further from Gays

KENILWORTH, 29 SEPTEMBER 2002 — The Archbishop of Canterbury elect, Dr Rowan Williams, has delivered another blow to his liberal supporters by stating that he does not intend to promote gay rights within the Church or attempt to challenge anti-gay Church policy.

The new revelations come in a letter that has been put up on the Evangelical Alliance website.

In the letter Dr Williams says: “No Archbishop of Canterbury can make policy for the whole Anglican Church, nor should he seek to do so. I have no agenda of my own to implement on this matter, and the resolutions of the Lambeth Conference [which overwhelmingly rejected the validity of gay relationships] must determine my conduct. [...] My task is to state the majority view; if asked, I can expound the debates around it, but I have no business to alter it by my fiat.”

Dr Williams also admits that he has “suspended or removed from training” candidates whose lives he believed to be “capable of causing scandal”. It is not clear whether any gay people were involved in these sackings, but given that the letter addresses the subject of homosexuality, it may be assumed that there were.

Dr Williams also explains that the famous ordination of a gay man that he performed was not done as openly as it has been presented. He said he had been told confidentially that the man had a close personal friend of the same sex, but he did not pursue enquiries to ascertain the nature of that friendship. To his credit he does say that he has no reason to regret the ordination.

Terry Sanderson of the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) commented: “This will come as a huge disappointment to lesbian and gay Christians and their apologists who had hoped that Dr Williams was going to take his Church forward on this issue. It seems that he is quite happy to reassure the bigots among his flock that their prejudice will not be disturbed – in fact, it will be encouraged. We humanists are concerned because the Church of England is the established church. It is, in effect, an arm of the state and its policies still have some influence in our public institutions. What the Church of England says and does affects more than just its members.”