Tag Archives: Dr. Jeffrey John

Church of England to allow homosexual bishops

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Clergy in celibate same-sex civil partnerships can become bishops under the new rules. I’m not sure what the point of a celibate civil partnership is or whether the sustained maintaining of such a thing is believable – but that is the latest naive or surreptitiously scheming, depending on one’s perspective, CofE edict on how to accommodate homosexual bishops. The Dean of St Albans, Dr Jeffrey John, falls into this category and was denied his appointment as bishop last year; I suppose he will have another go this year.

It’s hard not to see this as a next step to the position reached in North America: clergy at every level vigorously engaged in homosexual activity. Including bishops.

From the BBC:

The announcement, from the Church’s House of Bishops, would allow clergy in civil partnerships to become bishops if they promised to be celibate.

Conservative evangelical Anglicans say they will fiercely resist the development in the synod.

The issue has split the church since 2003 amid a row over gay cleric Jeffrey John becoming Bishop of Reading.

Mr John, now Dean of St Albans, was forced to step down from the role after protests from traditionalists.

He was also a candidate for Bishop of Southwark in 2010 but was rejected. Evidence emerged that this was because of his sexual orientation.

Evangelicals have warned they would be willing to bring in bishops from overseas to avoid serving under a gay bishop.

The Church has already agreed to allow people in civil partnerships to become clergy, provided they promised they would remain celibate, and repent for active homosexuality in the past.

Those conditions are now to be extended to clergy becoming bishops.

Homosexual clergyman in line to become bishop in the UK

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From the Telegraph:

An openly-homosexual cleric has been nominated to become a senior bishop, in a move that threatens to provoke a damaging split in the Church of England.

A confidential meeting, chaired by Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has approved Dr Jeffrey John, the Dean of St Albans, to be on the shortlist to be the next Bishop of Southwark.

He is understood to be the favoured candidate.

Dr John is a hugely divisive figure in the church after he was forced to stand down from becoming the Bishop of Reading in 2003 after it emerged he was in a homosexual, but celibate, relationship.

Promoting him to one of the most senior offices in the Church would trigger a civil war between liberals and conservatives and exacerbate existing divisions within the Anglican Communion.

Rowan Williams must know that making Dr. Jeffrey John a bishop will create similar havoc in the UK that Gene Robinson’s consecration as bishop did in the US; why is he allowing it to proceed?

Perhaps because Dr. John is in a “celibate relationship” – although it wasn’t always the case:

Canon John, a prominent gay rights advocate, had been in an active homosexual relationship but said he had been celibate for a number of years.

Part of the problem seems to me to be Dr. John’s motive in all this. He must know that his becoming a bishop will cause strife, but presumably thinks the strife is worth it for the sake of advancing what he sees as gay rights in the church.

The fact that he lives with his ex-lover and civil partner, does little to alleviate possible suspicions that he might loosen up a little on the celibacy aspect of the relationship occasionally. This has nothing to do with his being gay: the same suspicion would be present if he were a heterosexual living celibately with his girlfriend. Just because someone is celibate, it doesn’t mean they are beyond temptation – rather the reverse.

So does Dr. John have an agenda of his own in all this? Obviously.