active homosexuals can be good Christians

Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne, Keith Rayner has told Synod it is time for a re-examination of the church’s attitudes to homosexuality.

Rayner said that as the church now accepted women priests and second marriages, further evaluation could lead to the acceptance of gays. While church tradition ruled out homosexual intercourse, it had in the past said the Earth was flat and that it had been created in seven days.

Rayner used the church’s changed views on creation and divorce as models that could be applied to a rethinking of homosexuality. He said, "Scientific discovery, for example, has caused us to rethink our earlier assumptions...about the process and time span of creation, the age of the Earth and the shape of the universe.

"Take the matter of divorce...certain texts of scriptures were traditionally understood to rule out the possibility of the church blessing the marriage of divorced persons.

"Why did this change?...Because human experience leads us to reflect more deeply on the biblical material...and saw real signs of God’s blessing of many marriages contracted after divorce."

Rayner acknowledged that active homosexuals could be good Christians. "We recognise that among the people whose orientation is homosexual and who do not believe they are called to celibacy there are members of the church whose Christian character and pastoral gifts we respect. All of this raises the question...may it be that God is calling us to review the received tradition [on homosexuality]?"

Gay members of the synod welcomed the Archbishop' comments about sexuality and endorsing the Lambeth conference’s motion to dialogue with gay people.

Parishes like St Mark’s Fitzroy are affirming and welcoming gay people, are really living sexuality and have gone long past discussing it.