In the run
up to Christmas, in a talk on gratitude, he foolishly made the remark, “Of
course some of us know who we really need to thank for our Christmas presents.”
The fuse was
lit.
A small girl
went home after school in tears because that vicar had said that there was no Father
Christmas. Her parents were outraged and
rung the local newspaper who immediately picked it up and ran an article the
next day.
Within hours
of it going to press the vicarage was inundated with phone-calls from the press
– local newspapers, nationals, radio stations, and finally, a photographer from
The Sun turned up on the doorstep asking for a photo of my father and I playing
with one of my toys from last Christmas.
In the midst
of this the BBC rang the Bishop of Manchester for comment.
“Did he know”
went the question, “that one of his clergy was going around telling children
that Father Christmas doesn’t exist?”
The Bishop
thought for a moment, and then simply replied, “I didn’t know that belief in
Father Christmas was a fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith.”
I have been
prompted to tell this story because of news coming out of the GAFCON meeting this week.
According to the Daily
Telegraph they have, ‘criticised what they called “revisionist
attempts” to abandon basic doctrines on issues such as homosexuality and “turn
Christianity merely into a movement for social betterment” during Dr Williams
tenure.’
As a result they think that the Archbishop of Canterbury should
lose his role as figurehead of the world-wide Anglican Communion.
Now there is a debate to be had as to whether it is appropriate
for the Archbishop of Canterbury to be so caught up in the strife of world-wide
Anglicanism that he (or hopefully in the future, she) is inhibited from displaying
the right kind of leadership in the Church of England….
But... and this is a big BUT… I have to ask the question,
Since when has a doctrine of
homosexuality been a basic doctrine of the Church of England – let alone the
Christian Faith?
Did Jesus say anything about it in the Gospels? - No.
Does it appear in the Creeds? – No. Does it appear in the 39 Articles of Religion or the 1662 Prayer Book? – No.
So how is it now being portrayed as a basic doctrine of the Church?
What is more, if this is true, it only provides more
evidence that the Church of England is institutionally homophobic. After all, if it is a basic doctrine of the
Church, then our whole existence as a church has, as one of its foundational
doctrines, an anti-homosexual faith. You
can’t get much more institutionally homophobic than that.
In truth, however, the traditional understanding of homosexuality
is not a basic doctrine of the Church of England, the Church in general, or the
Christian Faith as a whole.Like belief in Father Christmas, it has acquired a status in some parts of the Church which might lead the unwitting observer to that conclusion, but to mis-quote a former Bishop of Manchester,
“I didn’t know that belief against
homosexuality is a fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith – because it isn’t!”
