LONDON LETTER:The church's full synod will gather in York next month, this time armed with legal advice, to try to break the stalemate over the promotion of homosexual men
EQUALITY LEGISLATION in England and Wales has caused many organisations to look deep into their rules and regulations, but the Church of England has struggled more than most to decide on its future rules governing promotions to bishoprics.
In 2003, No 10 Downing Street announced that Dr Jeffrey John was to be the next Bishop of Reading, but he was forced to stand down after church conservatives campaigned against him on the grounds that he was unsuitable because he was in a same-sex, but celibate, relationship.
Dr John, by then in a civil partnership with his long-standing partner, fell a second time last year when his hopes of taking over as the Bishop of Southwark died after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, an old friend, failed to support him.
Now, the Church of England, suffering defections from its conservative wing to the Catholic Church and declining attendances in its churches everywhere, is trying to lay down clear rules on promotions, but few believe that it will end the debate, or create harmony.
Last month, its leaders met in York to debate the issue, but no agreement was reached, while the discussion itself was acrimonious, according to reports. The full Church of England synod will gather in the city next month for another attempt, this time armed with legal advice.
In a detailed note, the church’s legal office was forced to dance on the heads of many pins. A person’s sexual orientation is “irrelevant to their suitability for episcopal office”, so it would be wrong to take into account when vetting candidates.
However, the Church of England is “as a matter of law” – due to an exemption under the Equality Act – allowed to exclude a gay man where his selection would conflict with “the strongly held religious convictions of a significant number of the religion’s followers”.
In a series of rulings dating back to 1987, the church has said that someone involved “in a sexually active relationship outside marriage is not eligible for the episcopate or other ordained ministry”; but the rules said nothing about those who are either celibate, or in lawful civil partnerships.
“There is, by contrast, no corresponding statement of the position of the Church of England that declares that a celibate person in a civil partnership cannot be considered for appointment as a bishop,” said the legal office.
Many Anglicans are bitterly divided, with some arguing that a bishop “should not enter into a civil partnership, even if celibate” because it is “an exclusive, lifelong bond with someone of the same sex” that is viewed on a par with same-sex marriage by much of British society.
Equally, there are others who believe that gays should not be excluded from promotions if they are in a civil partnership “even though the discipline of the church requires them to remain sexually abstinent”; while others see no need for abstinence at all.
In 2005, the House of Bishops said there is “nothing incompatible between Holy Orders and entering into a civil partnership”, as long as they obey the rule of abstinence, but they were then dealing with deacons and priests, and not the higher ranks.
Now, however, the lawyers advise that the church cannot propose someone who is in a sexually active same-sex relationship; “it is not open to them to take into account the mere fact that someone is gay by sexual orientation”. If the Crown Nominations Commission is faced with a candidate who is in a civil partnership, “even though now celibate”, it must come “to a view whether the person concerned can act as a focus for unity because of these matters” – the ground on which Dr John has fallen twice.
The rule change going before the York meeting is highly significant since up to last year candidates for bishoprics were not interviewed for posts by the commission, which then passes on its nominations to No 10 Downing Street and Buckingham Palace.
The commission, the lawyers went on, should consider whether the candidate is “in a continuing civil partnership with a person with whom he had had an earlier same-sex sexual relationship” and whether he had “expressed repentance for any previous same-sex sexual activity”.
For some, this means that gay candidates will be questioned about their sexual conduct in ways that their heterosexual competitors are not, while some believe that they would be excluded anyway even if they gave all the right answers.
Dr Giles Fraser of St Paul's Cathedral offered a highly conditional welcome to the legal advice, saying that it was important that the church has said that gay bishops are "acceptable", though, he told the Daily Telegraph, that he could see no reason why they should have to stay celibate. "To go on to insist that what a gay person might have got up to in their past is significant, but not that of a straight person, is an obvious double standard. And just more of the same old institutionally homophobic C of E," he declared.
