Recent letters to The Irish Times reveal differing stances within the Church of Ireland. Canon Ginnie Kinnerley, Chairperson of Changing Attitude – Ireland and David McConnell responded to a letter from Rev Donard Collins, Killowen, Coleraine, Derry diocese. (See also today’s blog on this site – Blessing same sex unions).
Canon Kinnerley writes, – It is indeed regrettable that the Church of Ireland and its House of Bishops, like the wider Anglican Communion, is so divided on the issue of homosexuality – or, to be more precise, on the question of whether gay individuals should be accepted into the ordained ministry of the church. (That they are and probably always have been so accepted remains a fact, the difference being that both society and individuals are more open about these matters nowadays.)
It may be that the church is in the middle of what Hans Küng calls a “paradigm shift”, with the ship going through some dangerously rough water as it moves from one sea to another, threatened by the rocks of biblical literalism on the one hand and over-adaptation to the secular world on the other. And it may be that it will be some time before we come through it.
It is to be hoped that all of us crew and passengers on the ship of the church on this difficult voyage will remain true to our captain, whose core command is “that you love one another”, and not fall into rival factions trying to push each other overboard.
Changing Attitude Ireland is a group of Church of Ireland Christians and friends who are convinced that one of the variables in human nature as God created it lies in the area of sexual orientation, and who want people of the minority sexual orientation to be respected and their gifts appreciated on a par with the rest of humanity. While CAI was started, I understand, by gay people in need of support and affirmation, its membership today is both heterosexual and homosexual – or in our preferred language “gay” and “straight” – probably about half and half, though members are not asked to specify their orientation.
Unlike Rev Donard Collins (SEE BELOW – CNI) we believe that our House of Bishops has done the right thing in announcing a major conference on these issues for spring 2012, rather than feigning a non-existent common mind.
Such a conference cannot hope finally to resolve all the issues to everyone’s satisfaction, but at least it will encourage us all to think carefully about them and about each other’s sensitivities. In the meantime, may I suggest that “the truth” which Mr Collins would like the House of Bishops to “clarify” is not as simple as he appears to suppose; the fullness of truth remains always over the horizon, and we must work our way towards it conscientiously under the guidance of the Spirit, in the light of scripture, yes, but scripture read with an awareness of its original context and our own rather different 21st- century context.
As to his belief that “our chief aim must remain God’s glory” – yes, but let us remember that “the glory of God is man (including women!) fully alive”. The glory of God must also be that His people love and seek to understand one another, however difficult that may be. – Yours, etc,
Mr Collins had stated: – In Killowen Parish (as wider) there is a deep concern that the issue of homosexual persons being approved to ministry in the Church of Ireland has been poorly addressed – in particular by the house of bishops, whose actions have added to the problem.
It is our view that Dean Thomas Gordon’s actions and those of his appointing bishop (Michael Burrows of Cashel) have been, and remain a “just cause of offence to others” (Canon 32) and for it correction and apology should ensue.
None is passing judgment on another. We are all guilty of failing and falling.
Yet corporately as the people of God, our chief aim must remain God’s glory.
In our reformed church, if bishops are the focal point of “truth and unity” then here the Irish bishops fail on both counts. They have not clarified the truth – and on this matter of ministerial conduct they remain divided – with ramifications of such deep division, cascading through the Church, in Ireland and beyond.
David McConnell of Dublin commented: – The Rev Donard Collins suggests that in entering a civil partnership, Dean Tom Gordon has caused widespread and deep offence. On the contrary, I believe the vast majority of members of the Church of Ireland will be pleased that gay priests feel they can at last be open about their personal relationships.
There always have been gay priests. Some in relationships. But to be able to continue their ministry, they have had to exist in wretched closets of secrecy and denial. In recent times, Church of Ireland leaders at the highest level have publicly acknowledged the significant and valued contribution made to our church’s life and work by gays and lesbians. They have apologised for the hypocrisy that in the past has vilified personal lifestyles, while at the same time has benefited from effective ministries. Two of our bishops have been pleased to be associated with publications of Changing Attitude Ireland (CAI), an organisation that seeks to encourage rational and objective discussion within the Church of Ireland about same-sex issues and the ordination of those who are gay or lesbian.
It is not to the General Synod’s credit that its members continue to refuse permission to CAI to provide an information desk at the Synod’s meetings. This refusal, to my mind, is shamefully inconsistent with the liberal ethos of traditional Anglicanism. – Yours, etc,