Rite and ReasonTwo sharply contrasting beliefs about God are in tectonic contact and meltdown is inevitable, writes the Rev Gordon Fyles of the controversy over same sex-unions in the Anglican Communion
The flying visit to Ireland next week of the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Peter Jensen, is probably to be viewed as no more than a fringe piece fitting into the still-mobile jigsaw of events which seem destined to coalesce into the permanent reality of two Anglican Communions representing two radically diverse views of Christianity.
However, coming to meet concerned clergy and laity from all over the island, Dr Jensen has a commitment to Ireland that has deep historical roots. Formerly principal of the Communion's largest theological seminary, Moore College in Sydney, he was then in the line of succession to T.C. Hammond, the Dublin cleric who took over Moore College at a time when it was at its lowest ebb and transformed it into the vibrant institution it is today.
Dr Jensen is aligned with the vast majority of Anglican bishops who at Lambeth in 1998 rejected "homosexual practice as incompatible with scripture". Inevitably, he has become a leader among those worldwide who have viewed with dismay the appointment of Dr Jeffrey John, who has been in a homosexual partnership for 27 years, as bishop of Reading in the Diocese of Oxford.
The Church of Ireland has begun a year of debate on human sexuality, and yet it is possible by the time that year is up the Anglican Communion numbering 78 million Christians may already have fragmented irrevocably on the theology of marriage, sexuality and the presenting issue of homosexual behaviour.
Those who stand with Dr Jensen believe the Bible consistently teaches that God intends the physical expression of sexual love to be found exclusively within heterosexual marriage. This conviction does not rest solely on a few proof texts but arises from the whole tenor of scripture's definition of human sexuality, and the Anglican Church has historically upheld this understanding.
Those who believe otherwise say scripture does not mean today what the church always thought it meant and especially that Paul's arguments in the Letter to the Romans, chapter 1:18-32, saying that same-sex genital activity puts people beyond the scope of salvation are merely saying that homosexual behaviour is inappropriate for heterosexuals but not for those in a committed lifestyle of same-sex intimacy about which the apostle knew nothing.
The world looks on astonished and wonders why the kerfuffle about the domestic arrangements of a priest. The answer is that two sharply contrasted beliefs about God are in tectonic contact, and meltdown is inevitable.
For the liberal Bishop of Oxford, Dr Richard Harries, who appointed Jeffrey John, reason argues that humans are made for fulfilment and because of biblical strictures homosexual fulfilment is forbidden. God could either not have said or meant that because it runs counter to experience in the 21st century; therefore the Bible is probably unreliable and certainly insufficient to guide the church today.
The vast majority of Anglicans still hold, however, that scripture is not only valuable enlightenment about God but is infallible revelation from him and is fully sufficient to guide Christians in all contemporary circumstances.
This world view contrasts sharply with that of the theologically liberal Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who has defined God as "a spastic child, unable to communicate anything but his presence and an inarticulate sense of longing".
It is this conviction that the church simply does not know the mind of God on the complex issue of sexuality which has led within the confines of North American and British Anglicanism to the recent approval of same-sex blessings in the Diocese of New Westminster, Canada; the appointment in the Diocese of New Hampshire, US, of a bishop who left his wife and children to live with a male partner; and to the appointment of Jeffrey John.
Introducing the debate in the Church of Ireland, the Primate, Dr Robin Eames, noted that there was no agreement among the bishops. It could not be otherwise in a church which seeks to hold orthodox, radical and middle-of-the-road convictions together in a frequently strained episcopal collegiality.
That is why an as yet unknown number of parishes here could find themselves out of communion with their diocesan bishop and may seek episcopal oversight from outside so long as their bishop remains uncommitted to the biblical, historic witness of Christendom on marriage and sexuality. The clearest evidence of this commitment at present is subscription to the 1998 Lambeth Conference resolutions and particularly Resolution 1:10 on marriage.
The Archbishop of Sydney comes at this moment to offer counsel and encouragement to evangelical and catholic Anglicans here. He and scores of bishops in Africa and Asia wait to see whether the present serious spiritual and moral confusion in Western Anglicanism will be resolved. If not, their rescue mission will certainly include Ireland.
The Rev Gordon Fyles is rector of Crinken Church of Ireland in the Diocese of Dublin