BACKGROUND

The Anglican Communion

The Church of England has a significant number of lay and ordained members who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered. In Britain the Lesbian and Gay Clergy Consultation has 200 members and the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement over 900 Anglican members. These represent a small minority of the total number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered church members. The majority remain discreet about their sexuality from fear of prejudice and homophobia.

Other countries with significant numbers of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered members represented in active groups include the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Elsewhere in the Anglican communion, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered church members are less easy to identify. Where prejudice, non-acceptance and denial of sexual difference is more pronounced, secrecy becomes imperative. Many would not identify themselves as gay, though knowing they are physically and emotionally attracted to the same sex.

The gay and lesbian community

Like all communities, lesbians and gay men are diverse in their background and lifestyles, but share common causes, and a living, growing cultural identity. Most gay and lesbian people maintain close relationships with their heterosexual families of origin. Although there is a specifically gay and lesbian church (the Metropolitan Community Church), there are also networks of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people worshipping within all the mainstream religions.

Having ‘come out of the closet’, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people in the developed world can enter a community which includes its own social and leisure groups, political movements, welfare organisations, arts companies, books, newspapers, television programmes and shops, not to mention its own social customs and social problems, folklore, role models, family structures, fashions and sense of humour. In a major city like London you can find anything from a lesbian plumber to a gay psychotherapist, while lesbian and gay studies is an academic field taught in many universities.

The Bible

We do not accept that biblical references to homosexual behaviour in scripture can be fairly applied to the kind of faithful, lifelong relationships we wish to defend. The Sodom story in Genesis concerns gang rape, not a loving, permanent partnership, and its primitive morality (for example, when Lot offers his daughters to be raped instead of the men) means we can hardly take the text as an ethical guide. Similarly, while Leviticus includes homosexuality in its list of "abominations" we must also note that it condemns a number of activities (lending money for interest; shaving the beard; weaving two kinds of cloth together) which scarcely worry us today.

When Paul mentions homosexual behaviour in Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6 and 1 Timothy 1, it is highly unlikely that he had in mind the concept of an equal same-sex partnership, but rather homosexual prostitution and pederasty, which were the most visible kind of homosexual practice in his own society. Also, it is clear from Romans 1.26 and 27 which mention men and women "exchanging" homosexual sex, that Paul, like other Jewish and early Christian writers, believed homosexuality was a free and perverse choice, whereas we now understand that for most gay people there is no choice in the matter at all.

We find it ironic that most of our detractors quote these few, highly ambiguous passages at us, while finding reasons to ignore other much clearer and more numerous scriptural texts - against divorce and remarriage, for example, or against women holding positions of authority. Their highly selective brand of literalism shows clearly that their position is based on prejudice, not on any genuine concern for biblical authority.

Covenant theology and sexual ethics

The heart of the Bible's teaching about sexual morality is that a sexual relationship creates a covenant union between two people which is analogous to God's relationship with Israel or Christ's union with the church.

Both testaments demand faithfulness in such a relationship, because it is meant to be in the image of God's faithful love for us. A same-sex relationship cannot bear children, but provided it rests on the covenant of faithfulness, spiritually and morally it is no different from a childless heterosexual marriage. It can fulfil all the other purposes of marriage, and can equally be a means of grace and blessing.

The bishops of the Church of England have in fact already acknowledged that many gay relationships are indeed " a blessing to the world around them, and ... achieve great, even heroic self-sacrifice and devotion" (Issues in Human Sexuality, p.33).

So it seems bizarre to us that we are still unable to celebrate that acknowledged blessing in a formal liturgy especially when bishops in various parts of our communion are willing nevertheless to bless bombs and battleships!

A lesbian perspective

Should I stay or should I go? Being part of the church can feel difficult when you do not belong to the perceived majority. Women have their own struggles with the patriarchy and hierarchy which still exist in many areas of the church. Women who identify themselves as lesbian have the added burden of being true to themselves in a climate which often tries to dismiss them or treat them as somehow falling short of some ideal of ‘Christian/ biblical womanhood’. The dilemma is whether to work from within the church to bring the voices of lesbians to the notice of those in power; or whether to challenge the very system which renders us invisible and makes many of us desire to leave for more affirming pastures elsewhere.

But we are here at every level in the church, as lay people, clergy; married with children, single, in relationships with women, celibate. Lesbians exist in every congregation but are for the most part invisible. Our contributions to the church are worthy, acceptable, considerable and yet we are expected to not be hurt by endless references to happy families or by the constant covert and overt homophobia that prevails at every level in the church.

A gay priest’s testimony

I am a Christian because another man fell in love with me. My whole life was transformed. We are still partners now after 23 years. From my teens onwards I knew I was gay. I had been confirmed and was in the church choir and enjoyed it enormously. No one ever preached about homosexuality but I sensed it was something the church condemned.

At 17, I was still too young to know that what the church thought and what God thought might be different. I couldn't deny who I was, so I let go of God and spent 10 years feeling atheist and agnostic by turns. I said and did nothing to or with anybody.

And then John declared himself. We had been working together for a year. it had never crossed my mind that he was gay. We enjoyed each other’s company and spent time together. Eight months later I moved in with him.

He was a Christian for whom the question of ordination had been around and was to come to fruition a few years later. We talked about faith and he pushed Christian books my way. The moment of conversion was quite sudden. We were out walking on the Sussex Downs one afternoon. There was a small, isolated church on the route and I slipped inside. Quite unexpectedly, I found myself on my knees, praying. Seven years later I was ordained. When John fell in love with me I discovered, as if for the first time, what it meant to be loved, and I was suddenly able to respond to the love of God who opened his arms to me through John and welcomed me home.

Further reading

Bradshaw, Timothy, Ed. The Way Forward? (Christian Voices on Homosexuality and the Church)

Coward, Colin, Ed. 'The Other Way?' (Anglican Lesbian and Gay journeys)

Germond, Paul and de Gruchy, Steve. Aliens in the Household of God (Homosexuality and Christian Faith in South Africa)

Glaser, Chris. Coming Out to God (Prayers for Lesbians and Gay Men, their Families and Friends)

John, Jeffrey. Permanent, Faithful, Stable (Christian Same-Sex Partnerships)

Stuart, Elizabeth. Daring to Speak Love's Name (A Gay and Lesbian Prayer Book)

Vasey, Michael. Strangers and Friends (A New Exploration of Homosexuality and the Bible)

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This page was last updated on Friday, 14 December 2007