Thinking Anglicans

more on the Legal Opinion

on Friday, 24 June 2011 at 8.23 am by Simon Sarmiento
categorised as Church of England

Today the Church Times has this leader: Gay bishops again.

After summarising the non-story aspect of last weekend’s reports, it comments on the content:

In May, our view was a negative one, since the document listed several reasons why the appointment of a gay bishop could be blocked. This week’s positive spin has not changed our opinion. As the leaders of the “gay-led” Metropolitan Commun­ity Church in Manchester wrote to Dr Williams this week, “We note that [unlike a gay candidate] heterosexual candidates for bishop­rics are not asked to repent of any sexual activity with which the Crown Appointments Commission may be uncom­fortable.” More than one serving bishop has said that he would have con­sidered it an impertinence had he been asked about his sexual history.

The legal advice has no more weight now than before it was circulated to Synod members. It was not approved by the Bishops when they discussed it in May, not least because, to many, the brief was not how to remove discrimination within the Church, but how to continue it untroubled by the law.

The earlier report in the Church Times was House of Bishops divided on keeping out homosexuals.

Letters to the editor on the subject in the following two weeks are first here, and then here.