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Gay sex is a sin. The leader of the global Anglican church has come out with it and in so doing has affirmed “the validity” of a 1998 declaration.
Questioning biblical teaching is “unthinkable” for “a large majority” of conservative Anglicans, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby announced at the ten-yearly Lambeth conference.
“In many countries, [it] would make the church a victim of derision, contempt and even attack,” he said.
“For many churches, to change traditional teaching challenges their very existence.”
He sent a letter to bishops shortly before a “robust discussion” on sexuality at the conference. In the letter, Welby said the 1998 resolution, known as Lambeth 1.10, was “not in doubt”.
However, he would not seek the authority to discipline or exclude churches – including those in Scotland, Wales and the US – that conduct or bless same-sex marriage, he clarified.
He hinted there could be change coming up in the Church of England.
For churches in liberal democracies, not updating traditional teaching could also challenge their very existence, he observed.
They, too, could be “a victim of derision, contempt and even attack,” he said.
Speaking after the session, Michael Curry, the primate of the US episcopal church (who preached at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding) said churches exist in “very different cultural contexts”.
In the US, “it would have been unthinkable for us not to bless and sanctify loving relationships between LGBT folk”.
This is the first time Welby has publicly said he understands the reasons for that, he added.
Some campaigners for LGBTQ+ equality within the church were unhappy with Welby’s attempt to reaffirm the church’s traditional stance.
“Yet again priority has been given to saving a manmade institution over protecting LGBTQ+ people’s lives,” said one.
“Lambeth 1.10 encourages ‘conversion therapy’ and negates the God-given love between two individuals. It is a stick with which many of us have been beaten and will continue to suffer under around the world.”
Ninety bishops, including eight archbishops, signed a statement saying “many LGBT+ people have historically been wounded by the church and particularly hurt by the events of the past few weeks”.
They added that they “look forward to the day when we all may feel truly welcomed, valued and affirmed”.
Conservative church leaders from the Global South want the opposite. They’re asking bishops at the conference to explicitly restate the 1998 declaration.
Lambeth 1.10 rejects “homosexual practice as incompatible with scripture” and “upholds faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman in lifelong union”. It says same-sex unions should not be legitimised or blessed.
Justin Badi Arama, the archbishop of South Sudan, said: “We are living at a time of great spiritual confusion and moral flux.
“Based on the need to establish clear doctrine on marriage and sexuality at this defining moment for the Anglican communion, this conference must reaffirm the biblical teaching of Lambeth conference 1998 resolution 1.10.”
He says he’s confident most bishops at the conference will back him.
The issue is the conference’s most contentious.
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