Anglican Church -˜not safe’ for gay Christians

The Anglican Church in Australia has admitted it may not be a safe place for gay and lesbian Christians and that insensitive Church leaders have made gay parishioners too vulnerable to speak publicly.

The admission comes in an interim report documenting the Listening Process -“ a drive by the global Anglican communion to understand the needs of gay and lesbian members of its community.

However, far from listening, the report compiled by Dr Muriel Porter, a member of the governing body of the Anglican Church in Australia, says some sections of the Australian Anglican Church have actively ignored the views of gay and lesbian parishioners.

According to the report, it has been almost impossible to discern the experiences of gay clergy and lay people because the processes involved did not enable this kind of listening, or because gay people felt too vulnerable to speak publicly. In some cases, responses to gay people who attempt to communicate their experiences have been insensitive.

Porter said attempts by diocese to listen to the views of gay and lesbian people were often a scarifying experience and that one person had told her the listening process became a time of shouting rather than listening.

But Porter told Sydney Star Observer the news was not all bad.

Most bishops actually took this seriously and were very caring in one-to-one listening with individual gay people, she said.

The problem, Porter identified, lay higher up the Anglican food chain, where opponents to the Listening Process would orchestrate vocal campaigns.

Porter said the negative voices were in the minority, but enough to make bishops very wary because they are concerned they don’t want to hurt gay people in the name of listening.

But is the church itself a safe space for gay people?

I do know of some churches that are most certainly safe places for gay people, said Dr Porter, but in public forum, no, it is not a safe place and that is a matter of deep shame for the church.

Rector of St Luke’s Anglican Church in Enmore, the Reverend Gwilym Henry-Edwards, said the leaders of the Anglican Church should realise differences in sexuality exist and it’s not going to go away by shouting at people.

It’s different from diocese to diocese but in some places homosexuality is dismissed out of hand so for people who are gay it is not a safe place for them to come out.

The Anglican Church has been racked by indecision over the question of homosexuality since the openly gay Gene Robinson was installed as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.

Many African and Asian churches, vehemently opposed to wider recognition of gay people, have threatened to break away from Canterbury.

In an attempt to bridge this ideological divide, the archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, wrote in a preface to the report that the church is challenged to show that it is truly a safe place for people to be honest and their dignity respected, whatever serious disagreements about ethics may remain.

The next obstacle for the Listening Process report is October’s meeting of the Anglican General Synod in Canberra.