Call for Inclusiveness as Anglican Communion Primates Gather in England
Episcopal News Service. March 16, 1995 [95048]
(ENS) The church must include all people, regardless of gender, culture, ethnic origin or sexual orientation, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of Cape Town told the primates of the Anglican Communion who gathered for a weeklong meeting in England.
In his sermon at the meeting's opening Eucharist, March 12, Tutu said that people tend to "hanker after unambiguous, straightforward answers, hence the growth of various kinds of fundamentalism." Instead, he said, the church should dare to "take risks, to be venturesome and innovative, yes, daring to walk where angels might fear to tread." Throughout the Anglican Communion, he said, "let ours be inclusive communities, welcoming and embracing."
The service at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London's Trafalgar Square was crowded with hundreds of worshipers, and televised nationally by the BBC. The primates' meetings, which are hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, are held every two or three years.
The primates were quick to live out Tutu's call, sending a letter of support to Bishop of London David Hope who acknowledged his "ambiguous" sexuality in a press conference March 13. Hope. the third most senior bishop in the Church of England, said he had been the target of a gay activist campaign to "out" him.
Referring to his sexuality as "gray area" not strictly defined by either homosexuality or heterosexuality. Hope said he had chosen to live a "single. celibate life." He called the campaign by the small, militant gay rights group OutRage! an act of intimidation. The 35 primates, who all signed the letter, assured him of their "solidarity in deploring this reprehensible intrusion into your private life," and said that as a body "we stand against this kind of provocation."
Earlier this year, Bishop Derek Rawcliffe, retired bishop of Glasgow and Galloway in the Scottish Episcopal Church, declared that he was gay, and Bishop of Portsmouth Timothy Bavin resigned after being "outed" by OutRage!
The primates' conference, with its theme of "leadership," will include sessions led by Bishop Bennett Sims, retired bishop of Atlanta. Regional reports also will focus attention on the suffering in such areas as Rwanda and its neighboring countries.
Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, who will be traveling to Rwanda in May, said there are parts of the Anglican Communion that are "wounded and crucified." While he expressed his excitement about what he called "a dynamic, growing communion," he also observed that "where the church is growing most, those are places where it is most crucified."