Anglican Communion News Service - Digest News

Statement on Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu's past remarks on the Anglican Church and Homosexuality.

I must first point out that Archbishop Tutu's remark that he was 'ashamed to be an Anglican' as quoted in a newspaper headline this morning was - according to John Allen's biography - from a private communication with Archbishop George Carey over one particular issue at a particular time in Anglican Church history.

Since I became Archbishop we have moved on from that point and, certainly in the Anglican Church in Southern Africa the debate on homosexuality has been increasingly opened in a way that it never was before.

Archbishop Tutu is aware that the Anglican Church world-wide stood by him during the difficult apartheid years and I feel sure that his remark in no way reflected on his feelings for the church as a whole.

As a past leader of the church in Southern Africa, Archbishop Tutu will have an appreciation of how difficult it is to try to hold together people of different opinions in the complex and diverse world we live in today. As Anglicans we continue to value the rich diversity of our people and to strive towards unity. In the church in Southern Africa we condemn homophobia and preach a message of open and loving support for our gay and lesbian members. We are committed to continuing to listen to their views and to empathise with their experience of being homosexual.

Archbishop Tutu himself felt (as is pointed out in this biography) that we should not be obsessed with the issues of sexuality in the face of the challenges of global poverty and disease. I would join my voice with his in this belief and appeal for Anglicans and others to focus more on what is central to our faith and on life and death priorities.