Source:  Anglican Mainstream

Week of March 12, 2010

By Toby Cohen

Church of England Newspaper

DISAPPOINTED EVANGELICALS have turned on the Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev James Jones, after he called for a new policy on homosexuality in his Presidential address to his Diocesan Synod on Saturday. Bishop Jones called for the Church to tolerate a range of atti-tudes to homosexuality, as it does to pacifism. He said: “Just as the church over the last 2000 years has come to allow a variety of ethical conviction about the taking of life and the application of the sixth Commandment so I believe that in this period it is also moving towards allowing a variety of ethical conviction about people of the same gender loving each other fully.

“I believe the day is coming when Christians who equally profoundly disagree about the consonancy of same gender love with the discipleship of Christ will in spite of their disagreement drink openly from the same cup of salvation.”

The prophesied day did not come this week, as leading evangelical figures rushed to criticise the Bishop. On the Fulcrum forum, Dr Andrew Goddard said that the Bishop was attempting to lead the Church down a “destructive path”. He wrote: “This argument is shown to be inadequate in various ways but most basically because an appeal to diversity on one ethical issue cannot justify diversity on a quite different ethical issue.”

Bishop James said: “They are different issues. Yet both relate to areas covered by the 10 Commandments. I think that it is valid to show that diversity of interpretation in one area which has been accepted by the church might give us a precedent to hold a diversity of interpretation in the other.” The executive secretary of Anglican Mainstream, Canon Dr Chris Sugden, said: “[The Bishop] is picking and choosing his precedents, and the precedent doesn’t work, because with pacifism and the Just War, both sides of that discussion are concerned to limit war. It’s not pacifism as against militarism, which would be the strict parallel. Would he apply the same argumentation to slavery? Would he apply the same argumentation to racism? Would he apply the same argumentation to abortion?”

The Bishop stands accused of undermining all the Church’s ethical positions. In his address he said: “When it comes to making moral judgements about a person’s behaviour we have to hear the human story and form a moral judgement with regard not only to the nature of the action but also to the intent and the consequences.”

Bishop James said: “I understand the charge of moral relativism. However, listening to many people on all sides of the debate I believe that Scripture might yet have more to teach us about the complexity of human relationships.” However, Dr Goddard wrote: “It is particularly alarming that the address offers no engagement with Scripture or Christian tradition or Anglican teaching.”

The Bishop now faces questions as to exactly what action he is suggesting, and whether he will break with Church policy regarding areas such as the ordaining of people in active same-sex relationships. Bishop James said: “I stand by the discipline of the Church as expressed in the House of Bishops’ Issues in Human Sexuality. However as the debate develops, any decisions belong to the General Synod and to the House of Bishops. I simply want us to have a debate that is humane and Christian.” . . .

Read the entire article  here. 

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