The Archbishop of Canterbury's 'Gay Marriage' Letters

CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online)- Damien Thompson of the London telegraph and the Catholic Herald continues to cover the unfolding, some would say unraveling, story concerning the Church of England's efforts to keep the Anglican communion together.

On August 7, he wrote concerning the disclosure of letters written by the Archbishop of Canterbury disclosing his personal position supporting a sort of moral equivalency between homosexual paramours sexual activity and marital love.

In his ever popular "Holy Smoke Column for the Times Online Thompson wrote the following:

'Gay marriage' letters could wreck plans to salvage the Anglican Communion

The revelation that Rowan Williams thinks gay relationships are "comparable to marriage" will have devastating consequences for his attempts to hold together the Anglican Communion. American Episcopalians will seize on his leaked letters as the perfect excuse to ignore the ban on same-sex blessings that Dr Williams supported at Lambeth.

Rowan's defenders will argue that, in his letters, he makes it clear that he is speaking as a theologian, not a church leader - and, anyway, we already knew that this was his view, from a previous lecture he gave. Those arguments don't work.

His earlier support for gay relationships was expressed in a dense lecture written back in 1989. The crucial point is that, this time, he backed gay relationships in letters written in 2000 and 2001 when he was already a bishop and angling for senior positions in the Church of England - first Southwark and then the top job.

Why did he think he was suited to lead the Anglican Communion when, by his own admission, he held one view privately and supported another for purposes of leadership? That is precisely the sort of doublethink that has destroyed the reputation of Anglicanism.

This story was intended to break during the Lambeth Conference - and, if the person leaking the letter had used email instead of the post, it would have. The resulting row would have blown the conference apart.

As it is, I think the Archbishop of Canterbury will find it impossible to ward off charges of hypocrisy that will be levelled at him by the liberal Episcopal Church: I predict a steady increase in gay blessings in America and Canada - and in the Church of England, too.

Meanwhile, those evangelicals who thought that Archbishop Rowan had seen the error of his ways will now change their mind. The leak of these letters is a gift to the Gafcon lobby, who will be able to turn to conservatives who went to Lambeth and say: "We told you that you were wasting your time."

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Finally, spare a thought for Dean Jeffrey John, forced to step down as Bishop of Reading by Rowan Williams because of his support for homosexuality. I wonder how he will feel on reading in one of the letters that Rowan shifted to a pro-gay position after being persuaded by the writings of... Jeffrey John."

Catholic Online continues to follow the evolving details of this developing story out of concern for orthodox Anglican Christians and the growing interest in full communion with the Catholic Church. among many.

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