A Presentation by Bishop Howard Gregory
In July 2017, I made a submission to a Sub-Committee of Parliament which was charged with a review of the Sexual Offences Act. There were several religious entities that claimed to be making their submission on behalf of the Church. Not only were they not in a position to speak for the Anglicans, neither were they speaking on behalf of the major Christian traditions within the country but, the things which they were saying, and the spirit within which their submissions were being made, were not consistent with Anglican thought.
Having determined that they were not speaking for me or the Anglican Church, I made a submission which covered several areas, although the media focus and public attention has been primarily around one – the criminalization of persons of the same gender, or even married couples, simply on the basis of their sexual activities. In that submission I also addressed the re-definition of rape to make it gender neutral, so that we recognize that boys and girls, and men and women can be raped, and the legal consequences should be the same, not 10 years when males are the victims, and up to life imprisonment when females are the victims. I also advocated that the law recognizes that a woman can be raped in a marriage. The gatekeepers of the criminalization clause are not prepared to address these other two concerns, given their fixation on buggery. I made it clear in my presentation that I was not addressing or advocating same-sex marriage. These are the issues before us and not the wild imagination which some have brought to bear on the submission.
The tragedy is that many of us, as part of the church, have succumbed to a tide of fundamentalism which has implanted in the minds of our people an approach to the Christian faith, and particularly the interpretation of Scripture, which does not allow them to think critically about their faith, but to absorb some dictates which come from a narrow interpretation of these matters from North America. To that extent it is fashionable these days to just quote a verse of Scripture out of context and make a doctrine out of it, or to develop a political platform from one aspect of Scripture and to see all other issues as subservient to the same.
If we pay attention to what is happening in the United States of America we will see that there is a significant part of the church of similar orientation that has thrown its support behind the current President and the Republican Party by simply committing themselves to two issues which take precedence over all things, so-called family values and the anti-abortion (pro-life platform). Having done this, they are unable to exercise their critical faculties and to see that it is wrong to take away insurance coverage from millions of poor and vulnerable citizens; it is wrong to use savings accruing from such a move to give tax breaks to the already rich; and that it is wrong to have men, women, and children murdered in mass shootings by the unfettered sale of guns, supported by a powerful gun lobby. Thankfully, the Anglican tradition is grounded in an approach to matters of theological and biblical reflection using the tripartite elements of Scripture, Tradition and Reason.
There are Christians within our nation who seem to believe that they alone have a commitment to God and the Scriptures, which commitment those who do not share their views are lacking, and who are quick to label some of our Christian brothers and sisters criminals and to have that entrenched in the laws of the land in 2017. And in accordance, we who sit in the same pew and drink of the same cup of our Lord are prepared to follow their lead and have our brothers and sisters labeled criminal and subject to prosecution by the State because they understand human sexuality in a way that differs from us.
As the one charged with the responsibility for speaking on matters of faith for the Diocese, I took the position to make a submission which reflected Anglican perspectives on the issues. I took the decision to advance what I had to say as a personal one in order to protect both the clergy and laity from what would be a backlash from the same religious interests who claimed to speak for the church. The headline carried by one newspaper of my submission, and which was deliberately designed to be an eye-catcher, did not reflect what I said but, in characteristic fashion, shaped the perspective of many who still believe that whatever they read in the newspaper is the truth. Once the submission was released in the public arena I shared it with the clergy and churchworkers. (A copy of the submission may be found as Appendix A).
I have used media opportunities and opportunities within the church to respond to concerns and to explain further what is contained in the submission. Needless to say, I stand by the position which I expressed on a number of issues in that submission.
Prior to the date of my submission, there was a conference being planned by a number of Anglican clergy, laity and institutions from across the Commonwealth under the theme Intimate Convictions, and which was being co-sponsored by one of our priest, the Very Rev. Fr. Sean Major-Campbell. It was billed as an international conference examining the church and anti-sodomy laws across the Commonwealth. While I was kept abreast of the plans, and made it clear that in the promotion of the event it should be made clear that this is not an event planned by the Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, it was also clear that the intent of the conference was consistent with the position of the Anglican Communion as embodied in Resolution 1:10 of Lambeth Conference 1998 as follows:
This Conference:
- commends to the Church the subsection report on human sexuality;
- in view of the teaching of Scripture, upholds faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman in lifelong union, and believes that abstinence is right for those who are not called to marriage;
- recognises that there are among us persons who experience themselves as having a homosexual orientation. Many of these are members of the Church and are seeking the pastoral care, moral direction of the Church, and God’s transforming power for the living of their lives and the ordering of relationships. We commit ourselves to listen to the experience of homosexual persons and we wish to assure them that they are loved by God and that all baptised, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the Body of Christ;
- while rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture, calls on all our people to minister pastorally and sensitively to all irrespective of sexual orientation and to condemn irrational fear of homosexuals, violence within marriage and any trivialisation and commercialisation of sex;
- cannot advise the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions;
- requests the Primates and the ACC to establish a means of monitoring the work done on the subject of human sexuality in the Communion and to share statements and resources among us;
- notes the significance of the Kuala Lumpur Statement on Human Sexuality and the concerns expressed in resolutions IV.26, V.1, V.10, V.23 and V.35 on the authority of Scripture in matters of marriage and sexuality and asks the Primates and the ACC to include them in their monitoring process.
Anglican Communion – Human Sexuality – Lambeth Conference 1998
Accordingly, the Anglican position is not determined by what other denominations or religious spokespersons or entities within Jamaica have to say on the subject of human sexuality, neither does it take its cue from cultural sentiments, which for the most part are often not grounded in any serious examination of Scripture or relationship to the Church.
Many persons who have been most vocal in the media in their condemnation of the Conference and who have sought to determine the way Christians and the nation should approach the issue of human sexuality have used an approach to Scripture which is based on the extraction of verses of Scripture without engaging in serious exegesis and reflection on the text so that the audience can have a greater appreciation of the pathway to arriving at a serious engagement of the issues. In this regard, the Archbishop of the West Indies, The Most Reverend Dr. John Holder, a biblical scholar, has written a number of papers on the subject of human sexuality for the Anglican Communion and was the presenter of a paper on the Bible and Human Sexuality which is being included here for the information of those who are interested in studying the issue more closely.
(John Holder’s paper – Appendix B).
There were many other papers and presenters involved in the Conference and which were covered by representatives of the local and international media, as well as social media. For those interested in the programme of the conference you may check the link below:
It is not enough to simply dismiss or to simply issue a word of condemnation on the conference and its participants as many have done in the media who do not speak on behalf of the Anglican Communion. At the same time, we recognize that there are some member of our Anglican community who share strong sentiments regarding the staging of this conference. We need to be clear that the listening process to which our Communion invites us to be participants, is not about changing your own moral and religious position in relation to human sexuality. Rather, it is about how, in faithfulness to the position we have taken as part of the world-wide Anglican Communion, we are prepared to listen to our brothers and sisters who differ from us and to see and to care for them as part of the church, and which can never mean seeking to label them as “criminal”.
The conference has come and gone but, in a sense, it is not over. It has set in motion another phase in the process of listening and dialogue with LGBTQI persons which remains open and is not going away. There are various reports of the Conference which have been carried worldwide by means of the formal and social media, offering both positive and negative coverage, and which have identified Jamaica and the Anglican Communion in ways which cannot be erased because of the personal stance we may take. You will probably not like the way in which your country and the position which you hold is represented, but to choose to ignore and not engage these perspectives, does not somehow relegate them to oblivion. Here is one such report to which I have been privy:
(Appendix C) LGBT With Jesus’s Blessing? Coming To A Church Near You?
It was Pope Francis who, in addressing pastoral concerns affecting the life of the laity who had this to say about the perspective from which the ministry of the Church must be exercised: “I want to remind priests that the confessional must not be a torture chamber, but rather an encounter with the Lord’s mercy.” And: “I would also point out that the Eucharist ‘is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak’.” And in relation to this troubling issue of sexuality, asked of gay people, “Who am I to judge?”
In going forward let us call to mind the collective wisdom of the Anglican Communion on this subject as the guiding principle for our listening and our reflection, and for which purpose I highlight once more elements of those guiding principles for us as Anglicans as we see to make our contribution to the Christian community and to the nation. The Communion acknowledges and calls on us to affirm the following:
- there are among us persons who experience themselves as having a homosexual orientation. Many of these are members of the Church and are seeking the pastoral care, moral direction of the Church, and God’s transforming power for the living of their lives and the ordering of relationships.
- We commit ourselves to listen to the experience of homosexual persons and we wish to assure them that they are loved by God and that all baptised, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the Body of Christ;
- while rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture, calls on all our people to minister pastorally and sensitively to all irrespective of sexual orientation and to condemn irrational fear of homosexuals, violence within marriage and any trivialisation and commercialisation of sex;
- cannot advise the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions.
+Bishop Gregory