The Editor of The Gazette, Canon Ian Ellis made the right calls in expanding the correspondence to the paper and in producing this week’s supplement on matters relevant to the conference on sexuality and belief.
As a former long-ago has been Editor,I feel that once again the journal which has many fallow weeks – and that is a comment on the church not the Gazette – is of service at times such as these.
Commenting to the New Letter in its report following the press release from the bishops, Canon Ellis stated that Dean Tom Gordon’s civil partnership had forced the issue onto the church’s agenda.
The News Letter report continued:
“The Anglican communion does have a benchmark – that sexual relationships are intended to be between a man and a woman within marriage,” he said. “We would not endorse same-sex marriage.
“So where the dean entered into a civil partnership there were bound to be questions raised.”
He said the aim of the conference is for church law makers to have the opportunity to clarify the issues of same-sex relationships in a more extended way than they could at a normal General Synod meeting.
No decisions on the future direction of the church will be taken at the conference, he said, but it is “a fair assumption” that a motion will be raised on the subject at the general synod meeting in May, which in theory could lead to the church taking a formal decision on the matter.
“I think the church is fairly evenly split,” Rev Ellis said. “We had an extended debate in the letters’ page of the Gazette and that was how it appeared.” (End of press report).
Speaking to Alf McCreary of the Belfast Telegraph, Canon Ellis said: “The supplement is intended as a contribution to the wider discussion on same-sex relationships. It is a difficult debate, as our extensive letter correspondence has shown, but it is one that simply must take place. There has to be a mutual understanding.”
Houston McKelvey