"The Anglican Communion and Homosexuality": a disappointment
The Anglican Communion has released a new book, The Anglican Communion and Homosexuality - A resource to enable listening and dialogue, edited by Philip Groves. Groves is the Facilitator for the Listening Process and a Canon of All Saints’, Mpwapwa, Tanzania. He has served in parish ministry in England and as a lecturer at St Philip’s Theological College, Kongwa, Tanzania. He is a trustee of CMS, on the Council of St John’s College, Nottingham, and the author of Global Partnerships for Local Mission (Grove, 2006).
The release is here.
From the release:
This study guide is designed to be accessible to all. Its aims are:♦ to hear the diverse responses offered from across the Anglican Communion
♦ to inform and encourage study of the issue in parishes, dioceses and provinces
♦ to increase the individual reader’s understanding of diverse perspectives of approaches to homosexuality.
The contributors to this timely book are women and men who reflect the geographical and theological diversity of the Communion. They include bishops, clergy and lay people with a wide range of expertise and experience.
Editor's note: All well and good, but the book does not do what Resolution 1.10 at Lambeth 1998 suggested that it do. It does not listen to the experiences of gays and lesbians. Rather it listens to perspectives about them. It may be a valuable book, but the change in charge represents a failure of nerve at the highest level of the Communion. It is a tacit admission that some of the leaders of our communion are so bigoted that they will not allow gays to speak for themselves unless space is provided in the same forum for others to speak against them.
This resolution to listen will be honored in the same way the prohibition not to cross provincial borders has been. It will bind those who respect such resolutions and be ignored by those who follow some "higher authority". Pshaw!!
- Ron Millier
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May 29, 2008 2:50 PM
Having Philip Groves edit a book like this is the same as having Archbishop Gomez head up the Windsor Report. The ABC does seem to like stacking the cards very much in favour of those opposing the inclusion of gay people in the Church. Surely there are plenty of academics within our church who hold a centrist position who could do this sort of job with far more impartiality, the results of which would be far more useful to the Communion.
--Jonathan Hagger
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May 30, 2008 5:25 AM