In his Easter Day sermon at Canterbury Cathedral, Archbishop Justin gave a ringing endorsement of the resurrection of Christ as central to our Gospel message. He spoke of the urgent, joyful and sometimes dangerous task of testifying to a relationship with the living Christ that has been given to all Christians. But why did he refer to “sexuality” and what did he mean by it?
“Witnesses are people who know Christ; lay or ordained, old or young, gender, politics, sexuality or whatever irrelevant”.
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What did the Archbishop mean when he said that “sexuality is irrelevant” to proclaiming the resurrection?
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In his closing remarks, the Archbishop says that “every disagreement in which love is maintained” witnesses to the living Christ. In other words, it is not just our proclamation of the resurrection, but the way in which we stay together, maintaining “good disagreement” even though we disagree over issues such as gender and politics and homosexuality, which testifies to Christ.
So here is the problem. By saying that “sexuality or whatever” is irrelevant to the witness of Christians to the resurrection, the Archbishop probably intends to say that the debates preoccupying the church are petty compared with the task of winning disciples to Christ through word and deed. Whatever he meant to say, he has run the risk of being misunderstood in two ways: suggesting that sexual morality is not important to Christian witness, and more specifically, that to be “gay” (by which most hearers would assume, sexually active) is completely compatible with authentic resurrection-based Christian Faith. Julian Mann in his recent piece reminds us that the opposite is true according to Romans 6:2-4: the resurrection of Christ was physical, and so not only speaks of his victory and his Lordship in a spiritual sense, but demands physical and moral change in obedience and faith from his disciples in response.
The Archbishop’s sermon is superb in its reminder that the empty tomb needs daily interpretation to the world by Christians in all their rich variety. But by using the word “sexuality” in its context, (which he did not need to do), he has at best run the risk of being misunderstood. At worst he has prejudged the outcome of his own ”˜Conversation’ process, and opposed the teaching of his own church, by suggesting the moral neutrality of homosexual practice.
Welby is speaking ex cathedra I suppose – straight from his seat.
I guess he would know about irrelevant.
I am swimming against the tide here, but the very use of the words “gender” and “sexuality” gives away the game. Male and female we were created.
What guidance does the Archbishop offer to those nice young people at HTB? New Christians, go forth and fornicate – it is ok with God.
What support does the Archbishop offer to those persecuted Anglicans in Garissa, Lahore, Peshawar, Jos and not to mention Kaduna? He gives their Muslim persecutors the ammunition for them to say that their religion is without morality and contrary to their god’s law as they bomb them, set them on fire, and gun them down in the streets.
What support does the Archbishop give to his own office, to the Church of England, and to the Anglican Communion? He brings it into disrepute and chooses the seat of St Augustine to do it from.
It’s more and more clear: we had hoped for a Thomas Becket or a Polycarp and ended up with a Vidkun Quisling or a Marshall Philippe Pétain.
We can only hope that, like Peter, when he is done with his denials, he will return.
“… he has at best run the risk of being misunderstood.”
I do not think the ABC is concerned about being misunderstood in that particular way. He is not merely suggesting moral neutrality. He is actively militating for it.
My understanding of “sexuality” is one’s attractions or feelings, what is erroneously called “sexual orientation”. The controversies engulfing western Christianity today concern behavior, which the Scripture uniformly condemns. Am I missing something?