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John Gladwin on the issue of Human Sexuality
In the controversy over Bishop John Gladwin's visit to Kenya, some people may be wondering why so much fuss has been made about where he stands on the issue of human sexuality. In point of fact, Bishop John has repeatedly said that he adheres to traditional teaching about marriage and the authority of the Bible. Furthermore, he is insistent that we are all under the authority of Scripture. However, as will be clear from his willingness to become a patron of 'Changing Attitude', he has said and done things which some people feel have sat awkwardly with these affirmations. Below are some representative examples of this, which have raised questions in people's minds about his standpoint. All of these are, or have been, in the public domain, or are statements which Bishop John himself agreed could be shared. (During some of the period covered, he was Bishop of Guildford.) 1. Interview on Channel 4 Television regarding Gene Robinson's appointment 2. Report on presence as guest speaker at 'Integrity UK' Conference in 2000 3. Press statement on Gene Robinson's appointment 4. Listed as a consultant for the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement for their 'Halfway to Lambeth' Conference in 2003 5. Votes in favour of the Civil Partnerships Bill and against an amendment that would have extended the Bill to cover siblings (designed to stop it being effectively 'gay marriage') 6. Signs a letter to the Times declaring 'full sacramental fellowship' with ECUSA and Canada, following the refusal of 'Global South' bishops to share Holy Communion with primates from those provinces at Dromantine. 7. Extract from an agreed transcript of discussions between representatives of Chelmsford Anglican Mainstream and Bishop Gladwin. 8. Report from the Church of England Newspaper on broken fellowship with Bishop John following his signing of the Salisbury Letter to the Times (above). 9. Press Report on the withdrawal of the invitation of the Bishop to Trinidad and Tobago. 10. Extract
from Hansard: speech on Civil Partnerships Bill in which Bishop Gladiwn
expresses support for a priest who conducted a 'party' to celebrate a gay
couple's relationship and for 'spiritual declarations' in making Civil
Partnerships.
1. Interview on Channel 4 Television regarding Gene Robinson's appointment Interviewer: ‘Either a practising homosexual is to be appointed as a bishop or he is not. Which way should it go?’ Bp Gladwin: ‘Well, that’s
just exactly the sort of way not to approach this problem and this issue.
If this move is something which is good to the Holy Spirit ... um ... and
to the people of God, it will flourish. If it isn’t then time will wither
it upon the vine. So I think we need to exercise a little bit of patience
and to allow some space to see whether a development
2. Report on presence as guest speaker at 'Integrity UK' Conference in 2000 Integrity UK described itself as "An Evangelical-friendly safe space for lesbian, gay and bisexual Christians". They held a conference in Spring 2000 at which Bp Gladwin was a guest speaker. This report was posted on their website (now defunct) by "Mike D": "The guest speaker was Rt. Rev. John Gladwin, Bishop of Guildford. As the weekend progressed it became clear that the Bishop was from the evangelical "camp" (and so able to appreciate our journey of faith), although not afraid to criticise the blatant homophobia of many from that camp. He had come, not only to speak to us, but to listen to what we had to say. One was left with the impression that he genuinely wished to hear from us and was not merely being polite. He conducted three workshop sessions and encouraged all of us to make a contribution. He then conducted a very moving communion service on the Lord's Day. I found it a great privilege and was spiritually uplifted by this service. What joy to be able to attend worship led by a minister who understands and accepts us for what we are. How refreshing for many of us who are used to being judged and looked down to at Church. In subsequent conversation with Bishop John, I rejoiced to hear of the stand he has made in the House Of Lords combating the homophobia of Baroness Young aided and abetted by many of the Bishops. May we all remember him in prayer that the Lord would continue to uphold him in his stand for truth and justice on behalf of Gay believers everywhere." 3. Press statement on Gene Robinson's appointment Anglican Communion and Homosexuality
People feel deeply led by God to conclude two different things on the basis of their reading the Bible and seeking to follow Christ. This is not the first time Christians are divided on an ethical issue: divorce, birth control, the ordination of women all come to mind in recent decades! The Church is not a congregation of like minded individuals, or a political party with three line whips, but a community of people networked across every conceivable culture on the face of the earth. The Anglican Communion need not agree on everything and our common life does not depend on unanimity but mutual love and the commitment to learn and ask questions of each other. As with the ordination of women, about which Catholics and Orthodox and some Anglicans are still far from agreement upon, let us allow a period of reception and reflection follow. The ultimate Christian test about the rightness or wrongness of something is whether or not it bears fruit. God has worked very lovingly and patiently with the Church for 2,000 years now, when we get things right and when we get them wrong. The American Church has come to this after years of prayer and reflection. We have more work to do in England and many other places have more thinking and praying and debating to do. Our unity is in Christ, which is much deeper than any of the individual issues that we face this decade. 4. Listed as a consultant for the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement for their 'Halfway to Lambeth' Conference in 2003 http://www.lgcm.org.uk/HalfwayToLambeth/ 5. Votes in favour of the Civil Partnerships Bill and against an amendment that would have extended the Bill to cover siblings (designed to stop it effectively being 'gay marriage') From the Church of England Newspaper Bishops vote for 'gay marriage'
Eight Bishops voted last week for the government’s civil partnership bill, which critics claim amounts to the legalisation of gay ‘marriage’. The Bill will now pass into the law with the support of the majority of the Bishops of the Church of England who were present at the debate in the House of Lords against the will of only two bishops, Chester and Southwell. [...] Attempts were led by Baroness O’Cathain to extend the provision of the Bill to include siblings living together and carers, who she said also suffered from the injustice that the Bill sought to put right. But her amendments failed. The Bishop of Chelmsford, John Gladwin, defended the ‘clarity’ of the Bill. “The clarity of principle of this Bill is that it deals with relationships between people of the same sex. That is the central principle of it. It is different from marriage but it has this parallel. One of the reasons people in my office and the clergy encrouage people who are lv iing together to enter into marriage, recognising that marriage is a relationship between the two of them and not just a statement in the law, is in order that the community as a whole should be clear about the relationship that they are in. The bill achieves that for people of long term relationships of the same sex. It is not just about gay couples, it is about people of the same sex,” he declared. [...] The Bishops who voted in favour of civil partnerships were the Bishops of Chelmsford, Manchester, Norwich, Oxford, Peterborough, St Albans, St Edmundsbury and Ipswich and Truro. 6. Signs a letter to the Times declaring 'full sacramental fellowship' with ECUSA and Canada, following the refusal of 'Global South' bishops to share Holy Communion with primates from those provinces at Dromantine. March 07, 2005 The Church and homosexuality From the Bishop of Salisbury and others Sir, We are encouraged by the commitment of the primates of the Anglican Communion to “the underlying reality of our communion in God the Holy Trinity” whilst engaging in dialogue and listening, in relation to the issues which have “obscured” that communion. The communiqué issued at the end of their week-long meeting in Newry (report and leading article, February 26) recommends actions which will allow that dialogue to continue and articulates the deep bonds of affection which continue to unite us. We do not believe that the different responses of our sister churches to lesbian and gay people are of such significance that we should break the bonds of communion. We welcome the positive steps which will now be taken to engage in dialogue with lesbian and gay people. This call has been repeated by successive Lambeth conferences and we will do all that we can to facilitate that mutual listening throughout the Communion. We assure lesbian and gay Christians of our commitment to the principle of the Lambeth conference that all baptised, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the Body of Christ. We remain in full sacramental fellowship with all the churches of the Anglican Communion, including those of Canada and the US, and we seek to remain in full communion with all of them. We also clearly state our continuing solidarity with our sisters and brothers in the global south.In a world ravaged by the effects of poverty, war and disease our communion must seek to serve the whole human family. We assure the Archbishop of Canterbury of our support for him in the ministry with which he has been entrusted and we offer him our love, our fellowship and prayers. Yours sincerely,
7. Extract from an agreed transcript of discussions between representatives of Chelmsford Anglican Mainstream and Bishop Gladwin. [...] We then raised a concern we had about our own confidence in +John. We gave the bishop a summary of what we heard him saying about the gay issue. We feel his position is as follows: “In the light of contemporary challenges to our thinking, particularly (though not exclusively) the experience of Gay and Lesbian Christians, there is a need to re-examine the biblical texts and the traditions of the Church, with the possibility that we might discover modes of living in addition to marriage, within which sexuality may properly be expressed, and that this creates a necessary provisionality about our present understanding and practice.” +John said he would have issues with the last part of that statement, and would like time to reflect on the rest of it. He agreed with the document which summarized the House of Bishops’ teaching on marriage. [“Marriage: A teaching document from the House of Bishops of the Church of England.” Published in 1999 by Church House Publishing.] However +John said there is a gap between the formal teaching of the Church, and the real pastoral challenges of caring for and supporting people “for whom marriage is not appropriate, and should not be seen to be appropriate.” And this does not apply solely to gay and lesbian people. And whilst no position should be adopted which contradicted the report on Marriage, the bishop cannot avoid the process of exploration. +John said that having accepted the proper authority of the Scriptures, we have some serious issues about interpreting the text. And Scripture itself does not let us off the hook in our needing to explore the complexities, difficulties and the challenges. The bible doesn’t give to us an immediate answer to these questions. Contraception is an example of how Christians can disagree with each other. Discussing this took 40 years of hard work before the Church of England came to a different mind to the Roman Catholic Church. Now that does not mean we will similarly change our minds about gay people in church. +John just wanted to say the hard work is necessary. Mike Reith asked if +John would say in certain ideal situations that homo ual relationships are legitimate. +John said that he would challenge gay Christian couples about how they would justify their behaviour. But he declined to make an objective statement that such behaviour would be wrong. Mike pressed him further and asked if he was a homosexual asking +John if it was right for him to with his boyfriend, what would the bishop reply? The bishop said such answers would be confidential. People are grappling with certain tendencies and need to be understood. Mike asked if the bishop would take a similar position of understanding towards those who were grappling with adultery. +John said that was different because in this case there is an issue of unfaithfulness. Mark [Burkill] said it was no different because it was a matter of being faithful to God’s word. +John said that apart from the 1 Cor 6 text all the other verses cover only abusive or improper homosexual relationships. David [Banting] pointed out that whilst work needs to be done on the specific texts, if you put them together, their cumulative message was clear. And we also need to take into account the overall understanding of sex within Creation. The bishop said he would like to develop his thinking and explore it with us in confidence and trust. The bishop is learning, and in his discussions has spoken to celibate gay people as well as those who are actively sexual. He said we could meet again in 3 months to discuss this. He had read Tony Thistleton on this subject, and a radical book. “Sexuality and the Christian body” by Eugene Rogers [ISBN 0-631-21079-9 - Blackwell Publishers]. He wanted us to engage with the theology of gay people. David asked when the church would know that proper listening had taken place. Would there be an end-point to the discussion when we say ‘we have listened and the bible is clear. Now let us think about the pastoral encouragement we bring to gay people to obey the bible’? Time was running out so it
was agreed that our group would consider the bishop’s invitation when we
met on 20th April ’05.
8. Report from the Church of England Newspaper on broken fellowship with Bishop John following his signing of the Salisbury Letter to the Times (above). The Bishop of Chelmsford has accused clergy who have broken sacramental ties with him of playing “fast and loose with Communion”. A group of clergy in the diocese have told the Rt Rev John Gladwin that they will refuse to share Holy Communion with him after he signed a letter with five other bishops, announcing that they remain in communion with the North American Churches. Conservative evangelicals argue that such a sign of support undermines the Communiqué from the Primates’ meeting, which asked the American and Canadian Churches to withdraw from the Anglican Consultative Council to contemplate their defiance over the gay issue. However, Bishop Gladwin defended the letter as “entirely consonant with the Dromantine statement” issued by the Primates. “The statement doesn’t require us to be out of communion with anyone,” he said. “There are very serious issues, which need addressing, but it is very important that we recognise our diversity and view it as a strength not a point of division,” Bishop Gladwin told The Church of England Newspaper. “It is my right to express my opinion and I want to give space to those who are anxious about these things, but playing fast and loose with Communion is not the way to do it.” Eight clergy have been meeting with the bishop over the past year to express their concerns over the gay issue, but six of them wrote to him this week to declare themselves out of communion. The Rev Dick Farr, Priest-in-Charge of Henham and Elsenham w Ugley, said: “We want Bishop John to admit that he's made a mistake and for him to step back from what he has said. As far as we are concerned, we are now in a position of fractured communion." The conservative parishes said that they would not be able to participate in services of confirmation, baptism or communion with the bishop. A priest connected New Wine
stream warned that the number of clergy out of communion with the bishop
could grow significantly, as charismatics and Anglo-Catholics in the diocese
are concerned that the bishop supports a liberal agenda. “We haven’t taken
the step [to break communion] yet, but we are deeply concerned and it could
well happen down the road.”
9. Press Report on the withdrawal of the invitation of the Bishop to Trinidad and Tobago. How terribly unfortunate'
...but we had to withdraw pro-gay Bishop's invitation
The reality of the rift in the worldwide Anglican Church over the ordination of homosexual bishops and the sanctioning of same sex marriage is now being realised among local Anglicans. An invitation extended by the Anglican Bishop of Trinidad and Tobago, Calvin Bess, to Bishop John Gladwin of the United Kingdom to visit Trinidad has been withdrawn, after it was learnt that the latter has expressed solidarity with the pro-gay Anglican churches in Canada and the United States. In 2003, the Episcopal Church of the United States ordained openly gay Gene Robinson as a bishop, and the diocese of New Westminster in the Anglican Church of Canada authorised a public rite of blessing for couples in a "committed same sex relationship". According to an article in the May edition of The Anglican Outlook, Gladwin was due to arrive here on May 23 for a visit that was expected to last until June 6, during which time he was scheduled to preach at the Family Day observances on Corpus Christi and participate in other activities in the diocese. However, according to the Outlook, a mid-March story in the UK's Telegraph newspaper indicated that a group of clergy in Britain had broken sacramental ties with Gladwin in an unprecedented revolt against his liberal views on homosexuality. The Telegraph story stated: "In what could be the start of an escalating conflict, at least eight conservative clerics have told the Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt Rev John Gladwin, that they will refuse to share Holy Communion with him." Gladwin reportedly responded by saying that it was his right to express his opinion and that he wanted to give space to those who were anxious about such matters. This revelation, according to the Outlook article, was the catalyst for Bess-who has the support of the local Cathedral Chapter-to withdraw the invitation, and this was done via a letter dated April 12. In the letter, Bess said he had learnt that Gladwin was signatory to a letter which expressed full sacramental fellowship with the churches in Canada and the United States and a desire to remain in full communion with them. "The church in the province of the West Indies has made its position on this issue very clear and has described its relationship with the churches of Canada and the United States as impaired," the Bishop of Trinidad and Tobago said in his letter. Bess said given the commitment expressed by Gladwin to these churches and the stance taken by the diocese of Trinidad and Tobago, he had to withdraw the invitation. In a telephone interview with the Sunday Express, Bess said he first met Gladwin in January 2004 at his enthronement as Bishop of Chelmsford in Essex. He said it was during this visit that he asked Gladwin if he would attend his diocese's Family Day. Bess said Gladwin indicated to him that he would be unable to make it in 2004 but would be willing to come this year. But in a letter to the editor published on March 7 in the UK Times, Gladwin and five other bishops stated: "We do not believe that the different responses of our sister churches to lesbian and gay people are of such significance that we should break the bonds of communion. We welcome the positive steps which will now be taken to engage in dialogue with lesbian and gay people." The letter continued: "We assure lesbian and gay Christians of our commitment to the principle of the Lambeth conference that all baptised, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the body of Christ." "We remain in full sacramental fellowship with all the churches of the Anglican Communion including those of Canada and the United States," the letter said. Bess said it was "terribly unfortunate" that he had to withdraw the invitation but that he could not contradict himself or the position that was agreed upon by the Anglican Churches of the West Indies. A policy statement from the bishops and members of the Provincial Standing Committee of the Church in the Province of the West Indies, issued in March, stated: "We continue to note with sadness that the developments that have taken place in the Episcopal Church of the United States of America and the Diocese of the New Westminster in the Anglican Church of Canada do not accord with the standard of teaching and practice shared by the majority of the Provinces of the worldwide Anglican Communion." The statement added that "these actions by these two sister churches have created a state of impaired communion between themselves and the overwhelming majority of the Provinces within Communion, including the Province of the West Indies". The statement also requested all "Bishops of this province (West Indies) to take such measures as to ensure that permission to function within this province will be restricted to those persons who accept our standard of teaching and practice". Bess said he received a call from Gladwin on Monday who acknowledged receipt of the withdrawn invitation but noted that Gladwin asked for the opportunity to explain the reason for his stance. But even after receiving Gladwin's explanation, Bess said his decision remained the same. Attempts to reach Gladwin were unsuccessful but the Sunday Express was able to speak to his assistant, Chaplain Chris Newlands, who said that they were still pursuing dialogue with Bess in an attempt to resolve the matter. Newlands, who was scheduled to make the trip to Trinidad along with Gladwin and his wife, said they were still hopeful that they would be able to visit the island. Meanwhile, Bess said he has
not found a replacement guest speaker for the Family Day service and that
a local bishop would most likely be given the job.
10. Extract from Hansard: speech on Civil Partnerships Bill in which Bishop Gladwin expresses support for a priest who conducted a 'party' to celebrate a gay couple's relationship and for 'spiritual declarations' in making Civil Partnerships. [...] If there is a need
for appropriate secular or spiritual declarations these can and should
be made. Let me share an experience from my own ministry. A priest of mine
was approached by two men who wanted to make a declaration of their love
and commitment to each other in front of friends and family. They did not
know how to do so. I am profoundly happy that the ministry they received
through seeing the vicar going on rounds around the shops and in the parish
led them to ask what they should do. They did not want a gay wedding in
church, they wanted a party, an occasion on which to exchange meaningful
and deep-rooted hopes and dreams for their future together. The work done
by my parish priest was extremely skilful and she enabled them to achieve
what they wanted. I understand that the occasion went extremely well. It
was not a marriage. It was not pension rights or any piece of paper that
they wanted, it was ministry and dignity that they were seeking. The Church
sought to offer them the former. All society should join with the Church—and
in some quarters the Church must join with society—in ensuring the latter.[...]
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