Church Challenged to Be 'Safe Place' for Homosexuals

The Anglican Communion has been challenged to show that it is truly a safe place for people to be honest and where they may be confident that they will have their human dignity respected, its spiritual head, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, spoke just after the Anglican Communion made available an interim report on the commitment of churches to listen to the experience of homosexual people.

"The commitments of the Communion are not only to certain theological positions on the question of sexual ethics but also to a manifest and credible respect for the proper liberties of homosexual people," Dr Williams said.

The Anglican Communion had passed resolutions over the past several decades, recognising the need to explore the issue of homosexuality, which has wracked churches worldwide. In 1998, the decennial Lambeth Conference called each of the global body's 38 provinces to minister pastorally to all people, including homosexuals, and listen to their experience.

"There are contexts where it is difficult to find a safe place for gay and lesbian people to speak about their lives openly," said the Anglican head. "There are contexts where people assume the debate is over. The report shows that listening is possible, but also that there is a great deal still to be done. The work continues, but we have a solid start here."

Summaries detailing the progress of listening and the stance on homosexuality from all Anglican provinces were made fully available Tuesday for the entire communion to have access to. Some have reported their start to "The Listening Process" while affirming that their position against homosexuality has not been compromised by listening to homosexual persons.

Primates recently gave the US Episcopal Church - the US wing of Anglicanism - a September 30 deadline to respond to a moratorium on consecrating homosexuals and blessing same-sex unions. The Episcopal Church had heightened controversy over homosexuality when it consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003.

While the Anglican churches affirm that homosexuality is incompatible to Scripture, Dr Williams expressed concern about violence and abuse against homosexual people.

"I share the concerns expressed about situations where the Church is seen to be underwriting social or legal attitudes which threaten these proper liberties [of homosexual people]," said Dr Williams. "It is impossible to read this [interim] report without being aware that in many places - including Western countries with supposedly 'liberal' attitudes - hate crimes against homosexual people have increased in recent years and have taken horrifying and disturbing forms."