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Gay church group assails Archbishop
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
THE LONDON TIMES
12/15/2004
GAY clergy and laity in the Church of England have sent the Archbishop of Canterbury a severely critical Christmas message, saying that he has suffered the loss of goodwill and support of many who welcomed his appointment.
In a stinging rejoinder to Dr Rowan Williams’s own Advent letter to the primates of the Anglican Communion, the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement said that homosexuals in the Church will no longer accept the status of second-class citizens to preserve unity.
The Rev Richard Kirker, the movement’s general secretary, said: “We will not be party to any plan that denies or delays unduly our full inclusion in Christ’s Church. Do not ask us, too much blood has been spilt already.” Addressing Dr Williams directly, he continued: “You are also right to draw attention to the violent and sometimes deadly consequences to homosexual people of Church leaders calling us, for example, ‘animals’, ‘lower than dogs’ and ‘subhuman’ or suggest that we are mentally defective.”
Mr Kirker added: “We have not heard, so far, any hint of an apology for our hurt feelings, yet alone any sense of repentance for the torture, suicide and murder that are consequences of these dehumanising words . . . Where is the voice of the Archbishop of the West Indies, Most Rev Drexel Gomez, when many songs within the popular culture of his province call for the murder of homosexuals?”
In spite of repeated promises to talk to and listen to lesbian and gay people, that had still failed to happen.
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