Anglican rebels clash with gay march
Posted on June 27, 2008
Filed Under Gay News Blog
When 303 traditionalist Anglican bishops, together with clergy and lay members of the Church, ascended to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem this week, they were taking the spiritual high ground in the Anglican Communion’s dispute over homosexuality.
As they were photographed against a background of the Old City and Temple Mount the symbolism was clear – they were the authentic wing of the Anglicanism, going back to the birthplace of the Church and what they say was the stricter understanding of the Bible of the first Christians.
But to the evident consternation of the organisers of the Global Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon) they had travelled all this way to the Christian Holy City only to find the streets taken over by Jerusalem Gay Pride.
It was a noisy – you might even say brazen – celebration of homosexuality by the descendants of the very people who gave Christianity the Old Testament of the Bible.
As 3,000 gay and lesbian marchers gathered in a park in the centre of Jerusalem, guarded against attack by 2,000 police, back at the conference hotel contingency plans were being laid to contend with any gay raiding party sent out to beard the traditionalists in their redoubt.
Time to re-interpret
All the Anglican traditionalists were to join in a special hymn, and one delegate had been selected to speak to the marchers. Instead, it was a traditionalist Anglican who travelled across town to assess gay pride at first hand.
The Rev Melvin Tinker, the vicar of St John’s in Newland, a parish on the edge of Hull, turned up dressed in shocking pink with sunglasses as cool as any others on display.
Mr Tinker, a prominent figure among evangelical Anglicans, took in the same-sex couples, waving rainbow flags and towers of coloured balloons wilting in the intense heat, and, despite the festive atmosphere and upbeat music said he was saddened by the sight.
“I find it strange – the fact it has to take place demonstrates that it is out of sync with the rest of society. You’d think it was odd if we had a sort of ‘marriage pride’ march,” he said.
For Melvin Tinker – as for the other Gafcon traditionalists – the issue is not about sex, it is about how you interpret the Bible, a far more fundamental issue, and one which they believe cannot be tolerated without placing the Church in jeopardy.
Anglican rebels clash with gay march
BBC News
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