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Homosexuality
Dialogue in the Anglican Communion
The Anglican Communion has been engaged in a process of dialogue and listening concerning the matter of human sexuality generally and homosexuality in particular.
In March 2005, a report by a group of international bishops who engaged in this process of conversation was released. This process brought together Anglicans from across the globe in an effort to bring theology, experience and pastoral care together. As the report made clear, the conversation is more than mere talk. It is an encounter "with people with real feelings, real principles, real hopes and fears" as Anglicans search together for truth in fellowship.
Since the report's release, the Communion Office has continued the commitment to listen to the experience of homosexual people as Provinces have reported back with results of their dialogue process. The Revd Canon Phil Groves recently released a series of provincial reports, a study guide and practical advice for engaging in the conversation at a local level.
This conversation is distinct from but related to such matters as the sacramental blessing of same sex relationships and the ordination / consecration of gay and lesbian clergy living in same sex relationships.
The blessing and ordination of homosexual clergy are matters concerned with church authority and doctrine. Internationally, the forum for this conversation has through the Windsor Report and successive statements and reports to the Anglican Consultative Council and the Primates' Meeting by the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada respectively. It is spurred consideration of decision making process between the provinces. The Covenant Design group released their proposal in January 2007 for comment across the Communion.
Although the conversations can and do inform each other, it is important to recognise their distinctive nature, purposes, forums and outcomes.
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Dialogue in the Australian Province
The Anglican Church of Australia does not have a formal, official policy on the issue of homosexuality.
That said, the 13th General Synod meeting in October 2004 passed several resolutions which indicated what the majority of representatives thought about this matter, namely:
Resolution 61/04 Sexuality & Gender Relationships - 1
That this General Synod
1. notes the Lambeth Conference resolution 1.10 of 1998 on human sexuality and subsequent developments in various parts of the Anglican Communion;
2. welcomes the publication of the study guide to Faithfulness in Fellowship;
3. urges Dioceses to promote the use of the study guide and also commends to the Dioceses the Doctrine Commission’s recently published essays Lost in Translation as they explore the importance of Scripture in our understanding of this issue; and
4. requests Dioceses to commit themselves to listen as the Church develops a Christian response to the contemporary experience of human sexuality.
62/04 Sexuality & Gender Relationships – 2
Recognising that this is a matter of ongoing debate and conversation in this church and that we all have an obligation to listen to each other with respect, this General Synod does not condone the liturgical blessing of same sex relationships.
63/04 Sexuality & Gender Relationships – 3
Recognising that this is a matter of ongoing debate and conversation in this church and that we all have an obligation to listen to each other with respect, this General Synod does not condone the ordination of people in open committed same sex relationships.
64/04 Sexuality & Gender Relationships - 4
This General Synod welcomes the initiative of the Federal Parliament in clarifying that marriage, at law in this country, is the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.
A number of Australians participated in international Anglican Communion Working Group on Human Sexuality that produced the report, A Final Report from the International Anglican Conversations on Human Sexuality in 2002. Archbishop Peter Watson (Melbourne) and Bishop Roger Herft (Newcastle) participated in the conversation. Details of the report can be found on the Anglican Communion website.
Since 2002, considerable attention has focussed on whether the Church internationally should or should not bless gay and lesbian relationships and whether clergy who are in homosexual relationships should be consecrated as bishops. Much of this discussion has involved Anglican Churches in Canada, the UK, the USA, Africa and South East Asia with some participation from Australian bishops. Some information about this discussion can be found on the Anglican Communion website. How this issue affects relationships in the Anglican Communion has been explored by the Lambeth Commission. The Commission's report, otherwise known as the Windsor Report, was released on 18 October 2004 which will be the subject of great discussion through 2005.
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At the 1998 Lambeth Conference, the international meeting of Anglican Bishops which occurs every ten years, passed the following resolution concerning sexuality (Resolution I.10):
"This Conference:
a) commends to the Church the subsection report on human sexuality;
(b) in view of the teaching of Scripture, upholds faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman in lifelong union, and believes that abstinence is right for those who are not called to marriage;
(c) recognises that there are among us persons who experience themselves as having a homosexual orientation. Many of these are members of the Church and are seeking the pastoral care, moral direction of the Church, and God's transforming power for the living of their lives and the ordering of relationships. We commit ourselves to listen to the experience of homosexual persons and we wish to assure them that they are loved by God and that all baptised, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the Body of Christ;
(d) while rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture, calls on all our people to minister pastorally and sensitively to all irrespective of sexual orientation and to condemn irrational fear of homosexuals, violence within marriage and any trivialisation and commercialisation of sex;
(e) cannot advise the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions;
(f) requests the Primates and the ACC to establish a means of monitoring the work done on the subject of human sexuality in the Communion and to share statements and resources among us;
(g) notes the significance of the Kuala Lumpur Statement on Human Sexuality and the concerns expressed in resolutions IV.26, V.1, V.10, V.23 and V.35 on the authority of Scripture in matters of marriage and sexuality and asks the Primates and the ACC to include them in their monitoring process."
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