The US Episcopal bishop whose consecration is close to the centre of the battle over homosexual clergy has condemned the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury, suggesting that he has been “abducted by aliens” on the issue, said The Times.
In an interview with The Times, the Bishop of New Hampshire (linked with Limerick Diocese ?), Gene Robinson, described how joy had turned to sorrow after Dr Rowan Williams was appointed to the primacy of the Church of England but failed to quell internal rows over the ordination of women and gay priests.
“I have clergy friends in England who literally studied at Archbishop Williams’s feet when he was teaching and who have said to me it is almost as if aliens have come and taken Rowan away from us and they have left something here that looks like him but we don’t recognise him any more,” Bishop Robinson said.
Giving his first interview since announcing that he will retire in two years, Bishop Robinson — whose sexuality caused controversy when he was elected in 2003 — said that Dr Williams was a wonderful human being and a faithful Christian.
But he added: “I’m not at all sure that his attempts to hold us together as a communion at all costs is the kind of leadership that this time calls for. I pray for him every day.
“I believe that he has been harder on the American Church than he has been on the Church in parts of the developing world, that he has held us to a higher standard and greater account than he has some other parts of the world.”
Whilst one may wonder if the Times is trying to pick up readers from the red-tops with this style of reporting which its religious correspondent Ruth Gledhill can employ, there are many more opinions on the issue than Heinz has varieties.
No one surely would chose to be homosexual in certain parts of Africa – as in certain parts of the Anglican church both in and out of Africa.
That there are more important matters to be dealt with in this world is also an argument worth examining. As one comment on The Times site said, “The long ignored common man looks at these priests on both sides and is convinced they all come from another planet.
“The issue on homosexuality is ensuring that gays are not persecuted because of their sexual preference. Beginning and end of story. That this issue remains front and centre of a major religion and receives continuous mainstream media coverage while more than half of humanity starves, and war rages across the planet speaks for the irrelevance of these clerics and their tennis club values.”
Food for thought!
Houston McKelvey