Sex and Sexuality:
Hemosexuality
This has been of particular concern to the Church of England recently, following the gay marriage of two priests in London, in a religious ceremony of questionable validity.According to the policy established in the 1998 Lambeth Convention, a 10-yearly meeting of Anglican clergy to discuss doctrine and church practice, homosexuality is "incompatible" with biblical teaching.
However, since 1991, stable same-sex relationships have been permitted for laypersons, but not for clergy. Yet Jeffery John, who was engaged in a celibate relationship with another man, was elected Bishop of Reading in 2003 – but he bowed to pressure and stepped down before taking the appointment.
Since then, non-celibate gay clergy have been awarded Anglican posts in the USA, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Scotland, and in 2003 Gene Robinson was made the first gay bishop, of New Hampshire in the USA.
Traditionalists among the Anglican clergy are threatening to rally together and if need be, break away from the church in a schism comparable to the severing of the Church of England from the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century.
The uncertainty looks set to continue until the upcoming Lambeth Conference commencing next week.