[WalesOnline] 14 Jul 2008--Archbishop Barry Morgan’s willingness to consecrate gay bishops could threaten the future of the Church in Wales, clergy warned last night.
Conservative priests yesterday responded with alarm to Dr Morgan’s remarks that he would support the appointment of an openly gay bishop if one was chosen by the Church’s electoral body. They warned such an appointment would be “disastrous” and could even end up splitting the church.
The row comes as leaders from across the Anglican Communion prepare to gather in England this week for the crucial once-a-decade Lambeth Conference.
Traditionalists have been outraged by the election of Gene Robinson, an openly-gay cleric, as bishop of New Hampshire. Dr Morgan last week chaired a conference at which Bishop Robinson gave a key address.
When asked if he would support such an appointment in Wales, Dr Morgan said: “In principle, if I thought that a person who had been nominated was an excellent candidate in every other way and that he was in a faithful relationship, for me personally, that would not present a problem. But, of course, it might present a problem for my church and I would have to alert the electoral college to that.”
The Church in Wales will appoint three bishops in the coming months.
There are vacancies in the dioceses of Bangor and St Davids, and the Bishop of St Asaph plans to retire at the end of the year.
Canon Andrew Knight of Swansea and Canon Tudor Griffiths of Deeside were among five clergy who said in a statement yesterday the appointment of a bishop in a gay relationship could be “church-breaking”.
They said: “The innovation of the American and Canadian Anglicans in the area of teaching on sexuality has already caused enormous damage to their churches. If the Church in Wales were to follow the line indicated by the Archbishop, the same disastrous results could be expected here.
“It is a question of whether the church will or will not remain faithful to the whole teaching of scripture and Christian tradition. The ordination of persons in same-sex relations is, therefore, an issue of church-breaking significance.”
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