Articles - From the Vicar

If someone were to ask me why I have chosen to express my Christian faith through worshipping in the Church of England my reply would probably be framed around a single word: toleration. Ever since the Reformation in the sixteenth century the Church of England has sought a middle way, eschewing the extremes of narrow Protestantism on the one hand yet willing, on the other, to acknowledge its debt to many of the insights of reformed theology. However the appointment of Dr. Rowan Williams as the next Archbishop of Canterbury has made me aware that there are those in the Church of England for whom toleration is not a virtue but a vice. Before he has even officially taken up office some clergy from conservative groupings have called on Rowan Williams to revoke his acceptance of his new post because, in the words of one of them, he is in 'gross error' as far as his views on homosexuality are concerned.

Rowan Williams has shown extraordinary (and unreciprocated) grace towards his opponents and, as one of the outstanding theologians of his generation, does not need me to defend him. What worries me most is the way in which some have attempted to make a particular set of views on human sexuality a touchstone for Christian orthodoxy. What effect will this have on the thousands of gay and lesbian Christians who are part of the life of the Church of England? And what issue will be chosen next? Paul's insistence that women should learn 'in silence and humility'? (1 Timothy 2.11) Or Jesus's instruction to his disciples that if their eye should cause them to sin they should gouge it out? (Matthew 18.9) The Bible is much more than a set of random verses that may be used (or abused) to suit a particular viewpoint. Those who do use the Bible in this way run the risk of appearing to live according to the law rather than the spirit, something against which Paul warns in Galatians (Galatians 3) and which is also contrary to what I understand to be the tradition and ethos of the Church of England.

© St Edmund's Church, Roundhay