Monday, December 31, 2007

Bishop left in dark over secret gay service

From The Times
December 31, 2007
Dominic Kennedy


The Archbishop of Canterbury kept a special communion service for gays so secret that he failed to tell the Bishop of London it was happening in his diocese, The Times has learnt.

Dr Rowan Williams inflamed the row over homosexuality which is tearing apart the Anglican Church when it was reported that he had agreed to hold a eucharist for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender clergy.

But even his critics have been taken aback to learn that he did so by making an incursion on to the patch of the Bishop of London, the Right Rev Richard Chartres, without giving notice or seeking permission.

Dr Williams now risks being seen as, at best, discourteous and at worst, in breach of canon law, for sneaking into a church near the Tower of London under the Bishop’s nose. Canon law says that only a bishop can authorise services in his own diocese and infringements may result in an intruder being removed from office...

Click here to read the rest.

Click here for Ruth Gledhill's original report on this event--which took place on November 29th.

2 comments:

Ann said...

This is a total trashing of the ABC as usual by the Sunday Times. As Mad Priest says here. Of course the Bishop of London knew it was happening - it had been in the papers for weeks -- there are some things that are done w/o official permission to protect others from their own people. Sorry to see this perpetuated on WWI.

Ann said...

from the Bishop of London’s spokesperson:

“The extent to which the Bishop of London is annoyed has been exaggerated - he’s not annoyed in fact and canon law was not broken. The whole thing seems to have been blown out of proportion.”