New gay row threatens Anglican church

According to a report in the London Times, the decision ensures that gay and lesbian clergy who wish to register under the United Kingdom’s new "civil partnerships" law — giving them many of the tax and inheritance advantages of married couples — will not lose their licences to be priests.

However, they will have to give an assurance to their diocesan bishop that they will abstain from sex.

"I will reserve comment on that for now. I want to wait and see what comes out of this," Bishop Bess said when contacted for comment on the controversial proposal.

However, sources within the local Ang-lican Church say the proposal could further deepen rifts within the worldwide Anglican church. News of this development comes just a few weeks ahead of a June 21 meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council to try to heal the rift caused by the American church’s decision in 2003 to ordain the openly gay Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. The Anglican Province of the West Indies, as well as the provinces in Africa and Asia, have broken off relations with the American church over Robinson’s ordination, as well as the decision by the Church in Canada to bless same-sex unions.

The latest Church of England proposal on gay clergy is contained in a draft Pastoral Statement on Civil Partnerships drawn up by Graham James, the Bishop of Norwich. It was discussed at length and provisionally agreed to at a meeting last week at a hotel in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire.

A final draft with some amendments will be produced for approval by the House of Bishops, the upper house of the church’s General Synod.

Under the proposal, a priest intending to register a civil partnership would inform his or her bishop in a face-to-face meeting. The priest would then give an undertaking to uphold the teaching of the Church of England, outlined in the 1991 document Issues in Human Sexuality, which prohibits sex for gay clergy.

Although no sanctions are included in the new proposal, it is expected that a breach of the rules may lead to disciplinary action or the possible suspension of clergy.

Some bishops, however, are uncomfortable about subjecting their priests to the proposed interviews.

Recently, this country served as a battleground in the ongoing row over gay clergy in the worldwide Anglican church when Bishop Bess withdrew an invitation to the Bishop of Chelmsford John Gladwin to preach at Corpus Christi celebrations here last month. Local church officials said the invitation was withdrawn because of Bishop Gladwin’s liberal views on homosexuality.

Bishop Bess had said at that time that Gladwin had expressed views on homosexuality which were "in conflict with those we espouse."