TT Anglicans reject pro-gay views

THE DECISION by the Anglican Church in Trinidad and Tobago to withdraw an invitation to Bishop of Chelmsford Rev John Gladwin is just the latest backlash the British cleric has faced since he signed a letter in The Times declaring support for liberal Anglicans in North America. The letter has generated a great deal of controversy in Bishop Gladwin’s own diocese, the second largest in the United Kingdom, where at least eight conservative clergymen have told him they will refuse to share Holy Communion with him. More fallout is expected among clergy in the Chelmsford diocese because 100 of them — more than a fifth of the total — signed a statement last Novem-ber in which they expressed unease about the liberal drift of the Anglican Church.

Following publication of the letter, clergy and laity from Chelmsford met on April 8 and urged the bishop to issue a “clear public refutation and correction of those who hold and advocate views the communion as a whole has rejected as incompatible with scripture.” One of the Chelmsford priests involved in the unprecedented revolt, Rev John Richardson, said several conservative parishes would not participate in services of confirmation, baptism or communion with Bishop Gladwin. In an interview published recently in the Daily Telegraph, Rev Richardson said: “We have never had a collective group of clergy out of sacramental fellowship with their bishop since the 17th century. While this is not the end of the road, it is one of the most serious protests we could make short of leaving the Church.”

In the same report, Rev Richard Farr, the priest in charge of the parish, added: “We want Bishop John to admit that he’s made a mistake and for him to step back from what he has said. As far as we are concerned, we are now in a position of fractured communion.” In a public statement, Rev Richardson and another priest from the Chelmsford diocese, Rev Dick Farr, said Bishop Gladwin and others who signed the letter had “distanced themselves from their own clergy who adhere to the teaching and practices affirmed at the Lambeth Conference in 1998 and reaffirmed since then by numerous local and international reports and statements including those of our own House of Bishops.”

The statement continued: “What-ever statement the bishops were trying to make, we ask what response they thought it might produce in those members of the Church of England here and abroad who have been following the painful decision-making processes of the official Anglican bodies. “Moreover, if the bishops were to continue along the same path of closer identification with the Canadian and US churches, they would find the same unhappy divisions that exist in North America rapidly being duplicated here. “In order to emphasise to them the way their actions have been perceived and the consequences they will have if pursued further, some of us have felt it necessary to declare our own ‘sacramental fellowship’ with our diocesan bishop to be no longer ‘full,’ but rather ‘in abeyance.’

“This is not a rejection of the bishop’s canonical and lawful authority. It is an issue of sacramental fellowship only. However, we hope he will appreciate from this the seriousness of his own actions and seek to be reconciled to ourselves and the wider church.” The escalating conflict caused by Bishop Gladwin’s liberal gay views has also damaged his chances of becoming the next Archbishop of York — a position for which he had been considered a front runner. The York Diocese has reportedly requested an archbishop with orthodox beliefs. Support for the beleaguered bishop has come from Accepting Evangeli-cals, a group within the UK Anglican church lobbying for acceptance of same-sex unions at every level of church life and creation of a positive Christian ethic for gays and lesbians.

The group recently launched an on-line campaign urging members to send letters and e-mails of support to Bishop Gladwin. Founding member of Accepting Evangelicals, Benny Hazlehurst, a vicar in Brixton, London and a member of the Church of England’s General Synod, said Bishop Gladwin had attended the group’s fringe meeting at last year’s General Synod. Bishop Gladwin’s spokesman, Rev Philip Banks, commenting on the withdrawal of the invitation to visit TT, told Black Britain last week that Bishop Bess was “being grumpy with Bishop John about this homosexuality thing.”

He added: “It’s about much more fundamental Christians saying that the Church in Canada, when they consecrated a gay bishop, that that was quite wrong and out of order and that we as the rest of the Anglican community should stand up and ex-communicate them. “What we’ve got to do is keep the doors of dialogue firmly open and we have to recognise the diversity of opinion that there is on all sorts of moral issues.” In his April 12 letter to Bishop Gladwin, Bishop Bess had emphasised that he was not willing to contradict himself or the position agreed to by the Anglican churches of the West Indies.

“The Church in the Province of the West Indies has made its position on this issue very clear and had described its relationship with the churches of Canada and the United States as impaired,” the TT bishop said. Chelmsford’s diocesan link with TT goes back two decades. Located in the Province of Canterbury, the diocese of Chelmsford covers the County of Essex, including the former part of Essex now within the Greater London area, together with a small area of the County of Suffolk. It was founded in 1914 under King George V. Bishop Gladwin, who had been invited to preach at a family day service for Corpus Christi and participate in other diocesan activities, was due to be in TT from May 23 to June 6. He was to be accompanied by his wife, Lydia, and a group from the diocese of Chelmsford.