"What we say here is heard around the world," Welby told LBC radio.

"Why can't we just do it now? Because the impact of that on Christians in countries far from here, like South Sudan, like Pakistan, Nigeria and other places, would be absolutely catastrophic, and we have to love them as much as we love the people who are here."

Anglicans -- who number 80 million -- "are one of the great international groups that there is in this world, we are massively majority not (to be found) in England."

Welby said he recently visited a mass grave of 369 bodies in South Sudan where it was believed that "if we leave a Christian community here we will all be made to become homosexual and so we will kill all the Christians".

"I've stood by a graveside in Africa of a group of Christians who'd been attacked because of something that had happened far, far away in America," he said.

"That burns itself into your soul, as does the suffering of gay people in this country," he added.

He said that the church had to listen "incredibly carefully" to gay communities in England, but also study scripture, "which is definitive, in the end", before drawing conclusions.

"I really don't want to say no to people who love each other but you have to have a sense of following what the teaching of the church is. We can't just make sudden changes."

On his four-nation tour of Africa earlier this year, the former oil executive wrote to the presidents of Nigeria and Uganda warning against the "victimisation or diminishment" of homosexuals.

*****

Welby: backing gay marriage could be 'catastrophic' for Christians elsewhere

BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-26894133
April 4, 2014

The Archbishop of Canterbury has said the Church of England accepting gay marriage could be "catastrophic" for Christians in other parts of the world.

The Most Rev Justin Welby told LBC that hundreds of Christians in Africa had been killed by people who associated Christianity with homosexuality.

He warned the same could happen if the Church of England backed gay unions.

Same-sex marriage became legal in England and Wales last week, but is not supported by the Church.

Mass grave

Speaking on his first live phone-in on LBC Radio, Archbishop Welby recalled visiting a grave in South Sudan where 369 people had been buried.

He said the victims had been killed because local people believed allowing a Christian community to exist would mean "we would all be made to become homosexual".

"That burns itself into your soul", he said. "As does the suffering of gay people in this country."

He also spoke of visiting a group of Christians in Africa who had been attacked because of policies of churches in America.

'Enormous suffering'

And he said religious figures in South Sudan had pleaded with him not to change Church policy because it would mean they could no longer accept help from England.

Archbishop Welby acknowledged that homophobic behaviour causes "enormous suffering".

But he said there is a "danger" in looking for "simple solutions".

He added: "The impact of that on Christians in countries far from here, like South Sudan, like Pakistan, Nigeria and other places would be absolutely catastrophic - and we have to love them as much as the people who are here."

Global scale

Rev Bob Callaghan, the National Coordinator of Inclusive Church, which wants the church to be "open to all", said violence against Christians abroad was a risk.

He said the Church in England would need to consider the impact of a change in its stance "on a global scale".

But he added: "The debate is not happening and that is part of the problem".

END