Don't miss this interview with Our Gene in the (UK) Times Online
Andrew Collier, a freelance journalist based in Scotland, has just interviewed Bishop Gene Robinson in London. We have reported in online.
This is the bit I liked best: 'I think the thing that is the most mystifying to me and the most troubling about the Church of England is its refusal to be honest about just how many gay clergy it has – many of them partnered and many of them living in rectories. I have met so many gay partnered clergy here and it is so troubling to hear them tell me that their bishop comes to their house for dinner, knows fully about their relationship, is wonderfully supportive but has also said if this ever becomes public then I’m your worst enemy. It’s a terrible way to live your life and I think it’s a terrible way to be a church."
"I think integrity is so important. What does it mean for a clergy person to be in a pulpit calling the parishioners to a life of integrity when they can’t even live a life of integrity with their own bishop and their own church?"
"So I would feel better about the Church of England’s stance, its reluctance to support the Episcopal Church in what it has done if it would at least admit that this not an American problem and just an American challenge. If all the gay people stayed away from church on a given Sunday the Church of England would be close to shut down between its organists, its clergy, its wardens.....it just seems less than humble not to admit that.'"
I also enjoyed this, towards the end: 'As a matter of fact I’m more evangelical than almost anyone you would run into in the Episcopal Church.'
Read the entire interview here:
Or, cut and paste into your browser: http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/2007/07/cofe-would-shut.html
3 comments:
In England the percentage of Anglo-Catholic priests who are gay would be about 70%. Nearly all single Anglo-Catholic, male priests are gay. The percentage of these who are in or open to a sexual relationship is hard to say but it is high. All bishops know this fact and have done for many years. The laity in Anglo-Catholic churches are not naive and are perfectly aware of why father has never married. Of course, there are more gay men in Anglo-Catholic congregations than in other parts of the Church of England.
That the Church ignores this obvious fact annoys me but no where nearly as much as the pretense, in public, of the Anglo-Catholic wing that they abhor gay relationships. Their willingness to jump into bed with the bigots of extreme evangelicalism just to keep women out of the priesthood is the most disgusting and hypercritical action I have ever come across in my church and the reason I had to leave the churchmanship I adored.
Not to worry, mate. If misery indeed loves company, then let us begin to weep and gnash our teeth because the same situation continues to exist in TEC - more than we are willing to admit.
The battle is far from over.
It's part of how the institutional church abuses power.
I didn't realize there were so many single gay men in the priesthood. Damn, all those wasted years going to gay bars.
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