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SYDNEY: Jensen urges Anglican communion to rethink gay clergy
Syndey Morning Herald
November 19, 2005
The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, has joined leading church conservatives to urge the head of the worldwide Anglican communion to rethink his personal stand on gay clergy.
The church of 77 million Anglicans was plunged into further upheaval this week when almost half of the leaders of the 38 autonomous Anglican churches signed off on a carefully worded letter urging the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, to confront "unrepented sexual immorality" in the church.
Anglican Archbishop of Sydney
Alluding to Dr Williams's more personal tolerant stand on homosexuality, 17 archbishops from Asia and Africa said they were troubled their leader had been reluctant to use his moral authority to challenge liberal North American churches approving gay clergy and same-sex unions.
The primates' letter continues the pressure on the archbishop to publicly support more conservative Biblical teachings on sexuality as a way to hold the Anglican church together.
Yesterday, Dr Jensen said he had "sympathy with the central tenor" of the primates' letter, drafted at a meeting two weeks ago at which he was an observer.
He endorsed its call for Dr Williams to rethink his personal view "and embrace the church's consensus and to act on it, based as it is on the clear witness of scripture".
The dissent did not make Dr Williams's position untenable but his personal stand made it awkward for him "to speak with sufficient clarity to the position we find ourselves".
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