Scotland: Bishop of Edinburgh Urges Gay Priests to Quit Jobs Cites Church of England's "Heartbreaking" Homophobia

By Rex Wockner International News Report The Bishop of Edinburgh, Scotland, is so disgusted with the Church of England's homophobia that he is suggesting gay priests quit their jobs. "I am saying to some of my young gay friends [in the clergy] that they should think seriously about leaving the Church of England because things have got that bad," the Rt. Rev. Richard Holloway said Nov. 19. "I could stock the Scottish Episcopal Church with sexual refugees from the Church of England. Hardly a week goes by when I don't get a letter from someone, usually with a heart-breaking story." Holloway called the fight for gay equality "the next human-rights issue on the church agenda after the ordination of women." In August, bishops attending the Anglican Communion's once-a- decade Lambeth conference in Canterbury, England, rejected gay sex as "incompatible with the scripture" and said gay priests must be celibate. The vote was 526-70 with 45 abstentions. Most Rev. George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury At the time, church leader the Most Rev. George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, said, "I stand wholeheartedly with traditional Anglican orthodoxy [and] see no room in the Holy Scripture or the entire Christian tradition for any sexual activity outside of matrimony." The 70-million-member Anglican Communion includes the Church of England, the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church of Canada and the U.S. Protestant Episcopal Church. Anglicanism was created in the 16th Century by England's King Henry VIII after Pope Clement VII refused to let him divorce his wife.

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