I was bemused by Rowan Williams' recent comments on his own lecture ‘The Body's Grace’, given to the Dutch newspaper Nederlands Dagblad. ‘The Body’s Grace’ was delivered at LGCM’s invitation to our Annual Conference in 1989 when Rowan Williams was Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford University.

To my astonishment he now says that the positive view he expressed on same-sex relationships in the lecture "did not generate much support".

But after the lecture was published we was appointed Bishop of Monmouth (1992), Archbishop of Wales (2000) and Archbishop of Canterbury (2002) in the full knowledge by the appointing bodies on each occasion that he stood by the lecture. Indeed it could be argued that the lecture served in each of these instances to aid – not hinder – his appointment. There is rich irony here, in the light of current controversies.

He has never to my knowledge publicly repudiated (before) the views he advocated then; indeed he has permitted continued re-publication of the lecture.

Did he not become the Archbishop of Canterbury, to wide acclaim, because those charged with making the appointment were aware (as they were in the two earlier cases) of the views contained in The Body’s Grace, and weighed them appropriately? It is inconceivable that the Crown Appointments Commission would have been unaware of the lecture, let alone of its deep significance – factors which we can safely conclude helped determine their ultimate recommendation. That seems to me very strong evidence of support indeed! Support, alas, he has largely squandered out of expediency and under duress.

When Dr Williams delivered ‘The Body's Grace’ it was a seminal moment and it did appear at the time to have little explicit support elsewhere, but surely he can see how influential his thinking was and how deeply his views have impacted on the life of the Anglican Churches in Britain and elsewhere? Who could have imagined back then that a Sunday Telegraph Poll of Anglicans in the pews would have produced a majority in favour of having a partnered gay priest in the Vicarage? Look at, for instance, the Anglican Churches of America, Canada, Scotland and his own beloved Wales. They now openly embrace lesbian and gay people and affirm them in their sacramental orders. Attitudes have changed mightily in the intervening 17 years.

It seems he still held fast to his published views when he was confronted by representatives of Church Society and Reform in 2002 after his nomination to the see of Canterbury, when it was his refusal "to recant" that led these groups to declare him a "false teacher".

Dr Williams has had a very difficult time since he became Archbishop of Canterbury, some of it his own making, but he cannot now pretend that the past 20 years has not seen a largely beneficial sea change in thinking on human sexuality issues and that he was, to his abiding credit, in the vanguard of this transformation. That these changes have not yet moved the majority of Anglican Provinces and have caused disturbance in our relationships with other Christian Churches is obviously much on his mind, but he should not make light of the considerable benign influence he has had up to now and how much of an inspiration ‘The Body’s Grace’ will continue to be regardless (or because) of subsequent events.

Of course theologians cannot be held to views they published twenty years ago if they are now convinced that they were wrong. I look forward to reading his refutation of his arguments in ‘The Body's Grace’.

Many great theologians have changed their views and some few have won even greater respect for their honesty and willingness to move to different ground. The present Pope was once considered a liberal theologian and Rowan Williams wrote somewhat autobiographically "I see that there are three phases in the life of the man who is now Pope Benedict" - Williams goes on to admire the earlier writings of the Pontiff's first phase like this: "the semi-popular writing he did in the 1970s, especially, I still find extraordinarily fertile".

Dr Williams will not mind then if I, and many others, go on admiring his earlier work.

Richard Kirker (Revd)
Chief Executive, Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement [LGCM]

27 August 2006

The Body’s Grace (Rowan Williams, 1989, 2nd edition 2002, LGCM. ISSN 0140 5993) Copies available from LGCM £5.50 inc £1.50 p&p Add £3.00 for orders outside the United Kingdom.