BRITAIN:TWO CHURCH of Ireland bishops with contrasting views on gay bishops and same-sex blessings have spoken of their optimism as the Lambeth Conference 2008 of the worldwide Anglican community nears its Sunday finish.
Bishop Ken Good of Derry and Raphoe said yesterday he was "quite hopeful" on the conference outcome, and that discussion on the role of the bishop and the mission of the church had been well summarised, but he felt that yesterday the conference was approaching its decisive moment.
The theme for discussion at 15 discussion groups, involving approximately 40 bishops in each, was Listening to God and Each Other: The Bishop and Human Sexuality.
Dr Good felt the diocese of New Hampshire in the US went "too far too soon" in ordaining Gene Robinson as its bishop in 2003.
He believed this was wrong both biblically and strategically, as well as where timing was concerned.
The Bishop of Cork, Dr Paul Colton, said that he too was optimistic where the outcome of the conference was concerned - "as long as someone doesn't collapse the scrum of process".
It had been "exactly the sort of Lambeth I wanted - as an encounter, a meeting place, but not where real decisions are made, as opposed to cyberspace megaphone activity".
It had allowed people look each other eye to eye as they made their points, which was helping to rebuild trust.
For his part, he said he didn't think he really appreciated before where the Global South had been coming from on the Gene Robinson issue, which to him had always been one of Christian justice and human rights.
There was a huge cultural chasm, with those in the Global South coming from "a totally different perspective" and where there was "an element of denial, no doubt about that" around gay issues.
There were also "more urgent issues, such as extreme poverty, survival, education", he said.
But he believes "we will look back on this issue in the same way as we now do at the way the churches colluded in slavery and in the way some single mothers were shamefully treated. If I am wrong, history will indict me. But I don't believe I will be," he said.
Also attending the conference, since last Sunday, has been the Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor diocese, Most Rev Anthony Farquhar. He has found the discussions, in which he has also participated, "quite exhilarating", and was also encouraged that "the entire focus has not been on a single issue".
Meanwhile, gay rights activist Peter Tatchell led a protest at the conference yesterday. He unfurled a banner which read "Stop Crucifying Queers" and appealed to the bishops to condemn colleagues who orchestrated anti-gay witch hunts.
He told The Irish Timesthat their failure to do so was "de facto collusion in such homophobia".