The Archbishop of Canterbury has acknowledged the near-impossibility of a divided global Anglican church reaching consensus on sexuality issues, after facing heavy criticism for affirming a 1998 declaration that gay sex is a sin.
Addressing more than 650 bishops from around the world at the decade-long Lambeth conference, Justin Welby said: “We are not free to choose who our brothers and sisters are… We must search with passion the visible unity of the church. But this is very difficult, because it will often lead to criticism in our society.”
Welby felt the full force of that criticism this week when broadcaster and author Sandi Toksvig accused him of putting the lives of LGBTQ+ people at risk after he said the controversial 1998 statement was “no doubt”.
After Toksvig’s open letter to the archbishop and his “finely dressed gang”, Welby accepted his suggestion that the pair meet to discuss the issues.
On Friday, in his second keynote speech at the conference, held in Canterbury, Welby said the global Anglican church of 85 million people must be a place of “non-violent revolution”, standing up for justice and challenging the ” selfishness of the rich”. .
The church must not “tolerate what is wrong because it fits the culture or we have always done it that way, or because our lawyers say so. We must continue to be revolutionaries”.
As climate change “wreaks havoc around the world”, he raised the prospect of the rich retreating behind “high, armored walls”.
Welby has tried to focus the global meeting on issues such as the climate crisis, inequality and conflict, but the rancorous issue of sexuality has remained central.
The conservative Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches, which claims to represent 75% of all Anglicans, said it “cannot accept a plurality of views on essential truths”.
Justin Badi, archbishop of South Sudan, told a news conference on Friday: “We [the Global South] they represent the global face of Anglicanism. We sound the call to return to biblical fidelity.”
The global church could not “go on limping between two different opinions.” Orthodox bishops had “God’s duty not to ‘live and let live’ under the guise of walking together in continued dialogue with those who have strayed from the path (or path) of truth,” he said.
Meanwhile, 170 archbishops and bishops issued a statement affirming the “sanctity of the love of LGBT+ people”. Many LGBT+ people had been “historically hurt by the church and especially hurt by the events of recent weeks.”
Jayne Ozanne, a leading campaigner for LGBT+ equality within the church, said she was “overwhelmed by the level of support and concern… for the global LGBT+ community”.
Ozanne added: “Now we must look for practical ways to help educate people about issues of sexuality and gender identity, and share the theological basis that has led many to affirm and celebrate same-sex relationships.”
Broadcaster and Church of England cleric Richard Coles said the Archbishop of Canterbury’s job was “very tough”.
He told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One: “He has to try and stick to [global church] where there is a great diversity of points of view. Many of the churches take a very conservative line, and there are a growing number of churches that take a more liberal line. He has to somehow try to find a way to hold it together.”
Welby’s position was “enviable”, he added, with the post of Archbishop of Canterbury almost always “devouring the incumbent”, he said.