Open Letter to Archbishop of Canterbury from Lesbian and Gay Christians (LGCM) 14 December 2004


Following an Advent Letter to the Primates (senior bishops) of the Anglican Communion sent by Dr Rowan Williams earlier this month, addressing the crisis over homosexuality and the often abusive language used by Church leaders about us, Revd Richard Kirker, General Secretary of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) has today released the text of an Open Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

"As an organisation devoted to bringing Christ to the homosexual community the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement can testify to the profound rejection Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered people continue to experience within the Church."

"You are right to draw attention to the violent and sometimes deadly consequences to homosexual people of Church leaders calling us, for example: “animals”; “lower than dogs” and “subhuman” "

'We have not heard, so far, any hint of an apology for our hurt feelings, yet alone any sense of repentance for the torture, suicide and murder that are the consequences of these dehumanising words. But it is not only words that kill, silence can be equally as deadly. Where is the voice of the Archbishop of the West Indies, Most Revd Drexel Gomes when many songs within the popular culture of his Province call for the murder of homosexuals?"

"The diminishing of homosexual people and denial of their human rights is not something practiced by others; your own Church in Britain worked hard to see homosexual people denied the equal protection of the law very recently. The Churches intervention was successful and now faith communities may uniquely deny us equal treatment in employment. You must see that such actions too give oxygen to the hate filled minds of those who would hurt and kill us."

Citing publication of the Windsor Report in October which made recommendations to the Primates LGCM asks "Why are we here?"

"For thirty years American Anglicans have made clear their intentions. Lambeth Conferences in 1978, 1988 and 1998 called for dialogue and the willingness to listen to lesbian and gay Christians. It is because of the failure of the Communion to enter into any serious and meaningful discussions that we have arrived at this potential parting of the ways. You have become party to this profoundly flawed process, devised in particular by your predecessor, and the other Primates who have failed the Communion and brought us, thereby to this perilous place."

"There are many amongst us who, in the short or medium term, would gladly relinquish such fripperies as the wearing of a mitre if freedom from tyranny for the majority of LGBT people in our world were the prize, or even for the promise of making that struggle for justice a top priority for the Anglican Communion. But others see justice delayed as no justice at all, and are not convinced that the Communion has any real or lasting concern for the plight of its lesbian and gay members beyond your tenure of office."

"While we do not wish to see the sacrifice of the inclusiveness of those Provinces which have embraced fully their baptised lesbian and gay members, and opened all the doors of God’s service to them, neither do we wish to be separated from the Provinces where our brothers and sisters in Christ are still forced to silence and deception for survival."

"Lesbian and Gay Christians feel a deep sense of repentance, not for what has happened to Gene Robinson in New Hampshire, but for their silent and sometimes active complicity in the past and continuing persecution of their kind by the Church. We will not be party to any plan that denies or delays unduly our full inclusion in Christ’s Church. Do not ask us; too much blood has been spilled already." ENDS

The full text of the Open Letter is available at
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