'Repent' Call to [Anglican] Church Over Gay Christian Treatment

BBC ^ | 1/10/16

[marshmallow]

More than 100 senior Anglicans have urged the Church of England to repent for "discriminating" against lesbian and gay Christians.

The demand is made in a letter to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York ahead of a meeting of 39 primates from the global Anglican Communion.

They say the Church must acknowledge members around the world have been treated as "second-class citizens".

The Church of England says the letter will be discussed at their meeting.

The Bishop of Buckingham and several cathedral deans are among the 105 signatories.

'Interpreting scriptures'

The letter asks the two archbishops "to take an unequivocal message" to the meeting.

It urges them to tell the other leaders that the Anglican Church needs to acknowledge it "failed in our duty of care" to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Christians and "apologise for our part in perpetuating rather than challenging ill-informed beliefs".

It adds: "We understand that the primates come from a variety of contexts with differing ways of interpreting the scriptures, but we urge you to be prophetic in your action."

The Anglican communion in Canterbury from Monday is scheduled to last a week.

But BBC religious affairs correspondent Caroline Wyatt said there were fears disagreements over issues of sexuality could lead to a walk out by conservative Church leaders from nations such as Uganda and Kenya.

The rift in Anglican Church over sexuality is even greater than that over women priests and bishops and those against homosexuality on biblical grounds want the liberal wing of the Church to repent over consecrating openly gay bishops and clergy, she said.

The letter was organised by Jayne Ozanne, former director of the Accepting Evangelicals group which campaigns for the rights of gay, bisexual and transgender Christians.

'Vilified'

She told BBC News a "line" had been reached.

"It was time to.........

[SoConPubbie]

You cannot be a “Gay” Christian.

These are nothing but heretic, unrepentant, unsaved sinners falsely bringing up the need for Repentence.

The whole “cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.” admonition from the Bible comes to mind.

[fwdude]

When are they going to openly embrace pedophilia as one of the “sacraments,” too?

[Campion]

When are they going to repent from discriminating against traditional Christians?

[JoeFromSidney]

They are not treated as "second class citizens." They are treated as particularly egregious sinners. We're all sinners, but they particularly need to be reminded of their status. Otherwise they won't repent. Trying to keep them out of Hell is an act of love.