Ever since the question of homosexual practice came to prominence at the 1998 Lambeth Conference, successive Archbishops of Canterbury have sought to deflect the underlying question of the authority of Scripture by focusing on questions of process.
Archbishop Justin Welby was explicit on this point when he recently laid out his hopes for next year’s Lambeth Conference, writing that ‘It is unlikely that we will have a single common understanding’ but ‘we are called to find ways of continuing together … and where we disagree, disagreeing well’.
But, almost immediately afterwards, the mask of ‘good disagreement’ slipped. The Anglican bishops of Ghana are strongly supporting the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill (aka the ‘Anti-Gay Bill’), for which they were publicly and strongly rebuked by the Archbishop and by leaders of the Diocese of Portsmouth, with which Ghana is linked.
Such rebuke is not necessarily inconsistent with ‘good disagreement’, but this episode suggests that it is more a tactic than a value.
The critics show little evidence of having read the Bill. Welby refers simply to the ‘criminalisation of same-sex attracted people’ without acknowledging that the legislation applies to same-sex activity, not orientation. The Portsmouth statement goes even further and claims the Bill ‘proposes imprisonment of members of the LGBT+ community for being who they are’. It also raises the spectre of ‘state-sponsored violence that will threaten the lives of those in the LGBT+ community’, whereas Clause 22 of the Bill specifically outlaws such extra-judicial action.
Can there be ‘good disagreement’ about where the boundaries should be drawn in applying the law to sexual activity? For Anglicans the first step must be to affirm a common commitment to the historic and consensual teaching of Scripture, and that is what will be lacking at the 2022 Lambeth Conference.
The proposal to tighten the law in Ghana came about, as the preamble to the Bill makes clear, because of the growing profile of Western-funded organisations publicly advocating for same-sex relationships, but the Lambeth Conference will welcome those who do just that, and even bishops in same-sex marriages, as being in good standing.
One of the signatories to the Portsmouth statement is the Venerable Peter Leonard, Archdeacon of the Isle of Wight, who in a recent blog describes himself as ‘a civil-partnered gay man’ who will feel ‘less safe’ if the Ghanaian bishops are hosted without protest. I hope they will not be deterred, because however uncomfortable their presence may be, it will be a reminder that ‘good disagreement’ must take place within the boundaries of apostolic faith and respectful understanding.
