Life

Same old same-sex row for Church of Ireland

What isn't on the agenda at the Church of Ireland General Synod may be of more interest than what is, writes William Scholes

Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh Richard Clarke, pictured at St Patrick's Cathedral in the city, will give the keynote address at the General Synod today. Picture by Mal McCann
Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh Richard Clarke, pictured at St Patrick's Cathedral in the city, will give the keynote address at the General Synod today. Picture by Mal McCann Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh Richard Clarke, pictured at St Patrick's Cathedral in the city, will give the keynote address at the General Synod today. Picture by Mal McCann

THE Church of Ireland's annual meeting of lay people, clergy and bishops, the General Synod, opens in Armagh today.

This year's formal agenda won't give Cirque du Soleil anything to worry about. Among the legislation being considered is a proposal to create a new archdeaconry of Ardboe, a measure which isn't likely to rattle tea cups or upset tray bakes even among the denizens of Ardboe itself.

However, as is often the way of these things, it's what isn't on the agenda that is likely to be of most interest.

As in pretty much every year I've covered the Synod - a stretch that goes back to 2003 - tensions around homosexuality are straining relationships.

The argument is ranged along familiar lines of conservative and liberal, orthodox and heterodox, those who follow traditional Bible teaching and those who believe the Church must be shaped by the culture around it.

The Church of Ireland's settled position, affirmed as recently as 2012 by the General Synod, is that "marriage is in its purpose a union permanent and life-long, for better or worse, till death do them part, of one man with one woman, to the exclusion of all others on either side".

Against this backdrop, the Church has also been engaged in a "respectful listening/dialogue process" on what it likes to call "human sexuality".

This has been mediated through committee structures so Byzantine a cynic could be forgiven for thinking that the process had been constructed in such a way to either never reach a satisfactory conclusion or to foreshadow eternity itself.

Into this "respectful" space has barged, repeatedly, and - say those who hold to the Church's official position - disrespectfully, a vocal pro-gay lobby.

It has been given fresh impetus by the Republic's upcoming marriage referendum, with the Church's two most liberal bishops, Michael Burrows of Cashel and Paul Colton of Cork, as well as a number of clergy, urging a 'yes' vote.

One bishop, Ferran Glenfield of Kilmore, has endorsed the 'no' campaign and it is striking that other Church of Ireland bishops have yet to join him.

It suggests that at an episcopal level - perhaps even among those who would be viewed as evangelical - support for the official Synod position is less than wholehearted.

Nor does this lack an ecumenical dimension. The Catholic Church has offered staunch opposition to any change in the definition of marriage, such as that articulated by Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin on the page opposite; there are those in the Church of Ireland wondering why none of their bishops have done something similar.

Where all this eventually winds up won't be decided over the next few days but one model being talked about openly is a 'renewal' under the auspices of a mainstream movement called Gafcon, the Global Anglican Future Conference.

It seeks to reform the worldwide Anglican Communion "around the biblical gospel and mandate to go into all the world and present Christ to the nations".

But first, the pressing business of the archdeaconry of Ardboe will need to be sorted out.