THE ANGLICAN CHURCH in Barbados can take a position on something unequivocally after all! Premarital sex is not Archbishop John Holder’s cup of tea, and Rev. Charles Morris had better get it into his head that his “variant understanding and interpretation” of sex before marriage “does not, and indeed cannot, represent what [the Anglican] Church stands for”.
Where was such pellucid expression when we yearned to learn our Anglican Church’s take on homosexuality and gay priests? I recall nothing but obfuscation from the Diocese of Barbados.
There it was back in 2003, the unabashed and self-confessed gay priest Gene Robinson, feeling it was his holy right, sought and was consecrated Bishop of New Hampshire – in a Christian church against all that is scriptural; against all of Paul’s condemnation of the practice of homosexuality. Big, grown, educated men of the Episcopal Church of the United States agreed to that by vote.
I am not oblivious to the controversy of – or doublespeak on – homosexuality in the Anglican Church. In 1998, the Lambeth Conference passed a resolution condemning homosexual acts as “incompatible with scripture”, but advised the clergy “to minister pastorally and sensitively to all, irrespective of sexual orientation, and to condemn irrational fear of homosexuals . . .”. God knows all practising sex participants need ministry and many of them divine intervention.
But there was a caveat to the Lambeth resolution. The clergy and lay leaders were to commit themselves “to listen to the experience of homosexual persons, and . . . to assure them that they are loved by God, and that all baptized, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the Body of Christ”.
What was the position of the Barbados Synod then on the Robinson fiasco?
“. . . To have him [Robinson] operating and performing as a bishop [in Barbados], that would create some problems for us, and I don’t think we can,” said Archbishop Holder.In 2009, arising from a picture of Jesus hugging a man in warm embrace, Dr Holder was even more circuitous: “The church has always taught that human sexuality must be treasured and treated in an extra special way. We have to fit homosexuality into all that.”
One year later, he is not for ordaining any “actively involved” gay priest, but couldn’t say “there will not be a time in the church when we will be thinking in a way that [ordaining openly gay priests] will happen”.
All this time gay priests in “committed relationships” have been proliferating the Anglican communities in the United States, Mexico, Canada and Scotland.
And we are becoming all holier-than-thou over the natural committed union between man and woman: one not sanctioned by a man of the cloth!
Truth be told, it is really not about Christ. It is about church. Select church people who, as the goodly bishop says, “speak and decide on policy of the gathered community in Synod”. Who is to say that my heterosexual union of 20 or 25 years with a family well taken care of is not blessed of God, and is not the poorer for a relationship because it was not sanctified by a religious minister.
What makes one issue more worthy of discussion than the other?
But then, I do not expect Archbishop Holder will address any of these matters, as he will want to steer clear of “hypes and irresponsible attention-grabbing gimmicks and statements”.
On premarital sex, Rev. Morris does not bury his head in the sand. The Caribbean at large is made up of families sprung from premarital sex and nurtured in committed unions and relationships, many a product of which has demonstrated a great love for God and fellow man.
As for religion, there may be too much church. People need to get back to communing with their God daily in their private room, rather than depending on a spokesman on Sunday morning.
We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God – every single one of us!
