Privately gay bishops have recently been told that if they publicly acknowledge their sexuality they will receive "support, prayer and encouragement" from a number of Church of England priests and parishioners. In a letter signed by more than 300 members of the Church to its leadership and entire episcopate, Anglican, Methodist and other Christian signatories appealed to gay and bisexual bishops, urging them to have the "courage and conviction" to come out. The written plea is back by at least 160 priests and promises to stand by and "welcome and embrace' those bishops who do decide to go public.
The Church of England teaches that sexual intercourse should occur within a marriage and that this "ideal" is not met by homosexuality. There are also currently no openly gay bishops. A 1991 statement from the House of Bishops said that hetero and homosexuality are not equal, nor in harmony, with the observed order of creation or with the insights of revelation as the Church engages with these in the light of her pastoral ministry.
The letter to the Church of England Bishops adds that it does "not advocate the involuntary outing of bishops."
They write to assure those bishops who may choose to openly acknowledge their sexual orientation as gay or bisexual and that they will receive the support, prayer and encouragement of all that respect the written proposal.
They also added "Sadly, we live at a time when those who are honest about LGBTI and Christian are treated with hostility by a vocal minority within and outside the Church. We have no doubt that the vast majority of Anglicans will welcome and embrace those of you who are gay or bisexual for your courage and conviction if you come out: weeping with you for past hurts and rejoicing in God's call as witnesses to Christ's transforming love and compassion.
I have 2 primary concerns with this. The first being, by "support" do they mean that they will actually stand behind their friends' and families' sexualities, or encourage them to "witness God's love" or whatever term they'd like to use and tell them they need to change.
Secondly, if this happens on a larger scale, as in all of the official large Christian Churches accept gay and bisexuality, then this could cause a large moral problem, larger than it already is. There are those who are die-hard to the fact that gays and bisexuals are wrong and should be "fixed." These people will probably state that they don't believe that these large scale church changes are Christian and break away, causing more extreme cases like the Wet Borough Baptist Church.
The Church of England teaches that sexual intercourse should occur within a marriage and that this "ideal" is not met by homosexuality. There are also currently no openly gay bishops. A 1991 statement from the House of Bishops said that hetero and homosexuality are not equal, nor in harmony, with the observed order of creation or with the insights of revelation as the Church engages with these in the light of her pastoral ministry.
The letter to the Church of England Bishops adds that it does "not advocate the involuntary outing of bishops."
They write to assure those bishops who may choose to openly acknowledge their sexual orientation as gay or bisexual and that they will receive the support, prayer and encouragement of all that respect the written proposal.
They also added "Sadly, we live at a time when those who are honest about LGBTI and Christian are treated with hostility by a vocal minority within and outside the Church. We have no doubt that the vast majority of Anglicans will welcome and embrace those of you who are gay or bisexual for your courage and conviction if you come out: weeping with you for past hurts and rejoicing in God's call as witnesses to Christ's transforming love and compassion.
I have 2 primary concerns with this. The first being, by "support" do they mean that they will actually stand behind their friends' and families' sexualities, or encourage them to "witness God's love" or whatever term they'd like to use and tell them they need to change.
Secondly, if this happens on a larger scale, as in all of the official large Christian Churches accept gay and bisexuality, then this could cause a large moral problem, larger than it already is. There are those who are die-hard to the fact that gays and bisexuals are wrong and should be "fixed." These people will probably state that they don't believe that these large scale church changes are Christian and break away, causing more extreme cases like the Wet Borough Baptist Church.
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