The Church of Ireland is in rough waters and the process of listening, advocated by the Bishops is paramount, Justice Catherine McGuinness writes in the preface to “Moving Forward Together – Homosexuality in The Church of Ireland”, published this week by Changing Attitude Ireland
Justice McGuinness states:
On the back cover of this book, the co-editors Ginnie Kennerley and Richard O’Leary describe Moving Forward Together as ‘a publication to assist in mutual listening and discussion within the Church of Ireland’. Listening and discussion are desirable in many contexts; the context here is the deep division which has arisen in the Church of Ireland on issues of human sexuality, in particular on the issue of ordination of gay persons.
In the Foreword Ginnie Kennerley starts the listening and discussing process by welcoming the announcement by the House of Bishops of a major conference on those issues, comparing the Church of Ireland to a ship sailing through dangerously rough waters ‘threatened by the rocks of biblical literalism on the one hand and over-adaptation to the secular world on the other’.
The rough waters of which she speaks have rocked the ship in some very difficult debates in the General Synod and more recently in a somewhat barbed correspondence in the columns of the Church of Ireland Gazette, correspondence which is continuing as I write this Preface. Andrew Pierce, in his contribution to this book, quotes a perceptive comment that the current controversy was becoming ‘a dialogue of the deaf’ in which the two constituencies talk past one another, massaging their own obvious correctness at the expense of the other’s evident wrong-headedness. Anyone with experience of Northern Ireland will be familiar with this kind of dialogue on a political level and in the context of sectarian divisions.
Moving Forward Together aims at opening our eyes and ears to a more rational discussion of the position of gay people in the Church of Ireland. Even more importantly, in its penultimate section it gives us the opportunity to hear gay people speak about their own situation and their relationship with the Church.
I have found the reading of all the varied contributions to this book both informative and moving. I learnt a lot from the examination of the relevant biblical texts by Professor Nigel Biggar and Canon Charles Kenny and from the more purely scientific section ‘Facing Reality’.
I did, however, find it hard to believe that many people still believe that gay sexual orientation is a deliberate choice by an individual or that it can be ‘cured’ either medically or by prayer and fasting. No doubt this illustrates my own ‘deafness’ to the beliefs of others.
In the section entitled ‘Church of Ireland Perspectives’ both Andrew Pierce and Bishop Michael Burrows analyse the 1998 Lambeth Conference Resolution 1.10 on Human Sexuality. The Bishop was writing in 2001 and his strong criticisms of the Resolution are relatively ‘hot off the press’. Andrew Pierce has had rather more time to take a cooler look at the Resolution and, while also being critical of it, he sets it in the context of Anglican thought and practice over the centuries. I found this discussion really valuable, giving me new understanding and making me think. All the same, as someone who has sat through many meetings, both religious and secular, while every jot and tittle of a resolution was fought back and forth, I cannot help being sympathetic to the complaints of the Bishop. In any case I find it very hard to believe that resolutions of the Lambeth Conference are necessarily a central part of the teaching of Christ.
Not all the contributors to Moving Forward Together are fully persuaded on one side or the other of the controversy, and it is to the advantage of the book that the discussion is widened in this way. I hope Gordon Linney will forgive me if I describe him as an establishment figure – what, after all, can be more establishment than an archdeacon? – but he is an establishment figure who can think outside the box. So I was particularly happy to find him frankly and honestly setting out the ‘middle ground’ position and expressing his own doubts. Interestingly he quotes from a recent announcement made by the House of Bishops of the Church of England which seems to indicate a new approach to the situation there, where a number of clergy are living in civil partnerships.
Even more important, I feel, is the short contribution ‘An Evangelical appeals to tradition’ contributed by my old friend and Synod colleague Alan Acheson. I cannot resist quoting from him: ‘The issue rather is whether our Church – and our Anglican Communion – is comprehensive, compassionate and charitable; in short, whether we are a Church/ communion governed by Love. If we aim to obey the central love command on Christ, we do not contribute to that end by speeches that are arrogant and intolerant; or adhere to this ethos by posturing that are judgmental and self-righteous.’
The fourth section of Moving Forward Together provides an opportunity for a number of gay people to speak of their own experiences, ranging from happiness to tragedy. The account by Henry Haslam and Charles Elliott of the joyful church service on the occasion of their civil partnership is at one end of the scale; the horrifying story of Mary’s treatment at the hands of her rector and parishioners is at the other. That this could have happened in 2004 is astounding. The behaviour of the rector, as described, in organising a somewhat unwilling group of parishioners to assemble in the church to make an attack on Mary must at the least have given Mary good grounds for a defamation action. Albert Ogle’s story is also very difficult, but it took place about thirty years ago and his then rector has had the great grace of understanding and reconciliation in more recent times. Because Albert had been curate in the next-door parish to ours I remember the concern that my own father felt for Albert at that sad time; he would have been glad to see that reconciliation and contentment have come now.
How, then is the Church of Ireland going to steer our ship through these dangerous waters? Like Ginnie Kennerley I welcome the proposal by the House of Bishops that we confer and listen carefully to one another, before making decisions as a Church. As pointed out by Andrew Pierce, ‘when making significant theological decisions for the life of the church, as Anglicans – historically – we have debated among ourselves in order to discern a path that is consonant with scripture, tradition and reason, particularly when we are contemplating a change in current practice. This has been the case in our thinking about human slavery, for example, or about the ordination of women.
I have been a member of the General Synod for many years – although age has now ‘knocked me out’. Forgive me if I look back a little at my own experience. In 1973 I was appointed to a Select Committee ‘to consider the theological, pastoral, legal and liturgical issues involved in the re-marriage of divorced persons.’ I still have a copy of the General Synod Reports for 1975 which contains an early major report of that Committee. Though I say it myself it was historically, theologically and legally a considerable document. Unfortunately it did not meet with all that much approval in the General Synod. But we were not dismissed out of hand. From year to year we were sent back after further debate to try again. New members were appointed who were selected on the grounds that they represented the opposite side of the arguments which had been made. After a while, however, the new members became converted to our point of view. Some members, sadly, died; others joined us. The original members felt that ‘Till death us do part’ actually applied to the members of the Committee rather than to the married couple. Yet in the end consensus was reached, a satisfactory solution was found, a path was discerned.
Somewhat the same process was, as Andrew Pierce pointed out, experienced in the case of the ordination of women. Ginnie Kennerley has described it excellently in her book Embracing Women. To go back to her thoughts on this new crisis, it may well be some time ‘before we come through it’. I hope and pray that we will do so with calm, with understanding, and, as Gordon Linney says here, with inclusive and accepting love. This book should help us to do so, and I hope that it will be widely read.
For short biography of Justice McGuiness see this site:
“Moving Forward Together: Homosexuality and the Church of Ireland” is now available. Copies at £4 and €5 are on sale. See report this Blog, January 31 for points of sale..