On page 24 of “All God’s Children” volume 2.1 we carried an article by David B.Taylor entitled ‘With bishops like these… who needs enemies?’.
Unfortunately there are a number of inaccuracies in this piece that have been brought to our attention by Savi Hensman, Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of LGCM. For reasons of fairness and to comply with our legal obligations, we include below a full statement of the inaccuracies and links to sources that correct these.
The errors are the responsibility of the editor. While it is not always easy to check every fact we have a duty to be fair and accurate. As Savi says: ‘While I have been publicly critical myself of Drexel Gomez, Rowan Williams and Church of Uganda leaders among others, I think it is important to try to be just even to those who are not always just to us.’ LGCM shall always aspire to this.
It is important to say however that, notwithstanding the errors contained, we stand by the essential anger and passion of the article. It remains the case that some leaders of the Anglican Communion have been guilty of untruth and injustice towards LGBT people; sometimes appallingly so and at great cost to innocent people.
Tony Green
Editor ‘All God’s Children’
Savi Hensman writes:
It is not correct that the ‘Archbishop of the West Indies was, and still is, the Most Reverend Drexel Gomez’. Gomez retired in December 2008 and has been succeeded by John Holder, whose position is very different. Though Drexel Gomez did not do nearly enough about homophobic violence, it is not true that:
‘Dr Gomez cannot claim with any semblance of probability to know nothing of these crimes; yet no one has ever heard a word from him, not merely of reproof but even of misgiving about them’.
To quote the Province of the West Indies report on the Listening Process web pages:
‘The Province of the West Indies understands the commitment to marriage as between a man and a woman as being alongside the Church’s commitment to “continue the dialogue with and pastoral care of homosexual persons”…Within the eight dioceses of the Province, there is a common cultural position which views homosexuality in a very negative light… The Archbishop has identified that in most of the dioceses, a strong homophobic mindset is firmly in place.’
He has also supported decriminalisation of gay sex in the Caribbean on human rights grounds:
‘I would find it difficult not to support that [decriminalisation] from a human rights perspective, while at the same time disagreeing with the homosexual lifestyle and its agenda. I don’t feel they should be harassed and persecuted’
With regard to the Ugandan Bill, the author asserts that:
‘when we find that a bishop of the Anglican Communion – Bishop Joseph Abura from the Province of Uganda – has not only expressed support for the Bill but justified its murderous intent with an utterly crazy condemnation of homosexuality, and that his words have met with a deafening silence from the rest of the Communion, then we must all not only feel besmirched with his malignity, but also scandalised by the apparent connivance of other bishops of our Communion’.
But Abura explicitly condemned the Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada which have indeed done much to advance full inclusion. A couple of days later, the Anglican Church of Canada’s House of Bishops denounced the Bill and a week or so after that the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church issued a strong criticism of the Bill, and mistreatment of LGBT people in general.
Later that month the Church of Brazil, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Archbishop of York condemned the Bill, and hostility to lesbian and gay people.
Some Anglican leaders have been explicit about their distaste for Joseph Abura’s views (‘It is with deep regret that we learn that one bishop, Joseph Abura of Karamoja, actually supports the proposed law: goodness only knows what Bible he is reading or what Jesus he is a disciple of!’ to quote Tim Ellis, Bishop of Grantham, and many have distanced themselves from his views.
It should also have been mentioned that the Church of Uganda, after coming under a lot of pressure, in the end distanced itself from the extreme position taken by the Bill’s supporters such as Abura.
