Preview: Grace, license and the homosexuality debate

This article appeared in the Conference edition of the Church of England Newspaper on 22 September 2003 and is reproduced here with their permission.

With the Anglican Communion facing a potential split, or 'realignment' as the Archbishop of Canterbury has called it, a Mainstage presentation tonight will be watched closely.

The presentation, led by Paul Perkin, will look at 'grace, license and the homosexuality debate'. The participants will include theologians Andrew Goddard and Gordon Wenham as well as Canadian theologian Edith Humphrey.

The subject of homosexuality has become the focus of international concern and recent developments in Canada and the USA have brought the Communion to a crisis point.

While the Lambeth Conference in 1998 passed a motion that pleased traditionalists, this holds no legal force within the Anglican Communion. In the Church of England the House of Bishops' document Issues in Human Sexuality drew a distinction between active homosexual relations among lay people and those between members of the clergy.

Because of the Lambeth Resolution's legal standing, other provinces and dioceses have moved further, in seeming disregard of Lambeth's moral force. However, their moves, in Canada to pass legislation allowing same-sex liturgies and in the USA to consecrate an openly gay man, are having serious consequences for the entire Communion.

In recent weeks international talks with Muslims groups were cancelled as they protested about the new direction in North America. Next month the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, will travel to Rome to meet the Pope. Vatican observers believe that feelings about the issue there are much stronger than during the debate over women priests. It seems likely that the Archbishop will be told that moves to institutionalise homosexuality are not going to be tolerated.

And all of that is without the internal crisis that is likely to see the 'realignment' Dr Williams talked about. But observers are sceptical that evangelical talk about listening to gay people will amount to much. The detractors say that while evangelicals might listen, their views are so entrenched that it is unlikely that any dialogue will ensue.

There are, however, divergent views within evangelicalism and this has led most recently to the launch of two new groups: Anglican Mainstream and Fulcrum, the latter of which is aimed at giving evangelicals a more compassionate focus.

On Saturday night at a meeting in the Pavilion on the future of Anglicanism most speakers indicated a reluctance to see the creation of a separate structure.