A Letter to the Bishops - June 2003

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Following the appointment of Jeffrey John, an openly gay, but celibate, man in a long-term relationship with another priest, to be Bishop of Reading, YLGC offered its full support to Jeffrey in the face of adversity and calls for his resignation from conservative groups. The following is the text of a letter to nine Anglican bishops who had published an open letter in which they had voiced concerns over the appointment. An abridged and edited version of this letter also appeared in the Church of England Newspaper and on the Telegraph website.

To the Bishops,

We, as members of YLGC (Young Lesbian and Gay Christians), wish to inform you of our support for Dr Jeffrey John at this present time. We regret that his appointment as Bishop-elect of Reading has become the subject of so much controversy. As a group of young, lesbian and gay Christians, we believe that his appointment is a welcome sign that the Church is big enough to include a whole range of views and opinions on this subject, as it seeks to discover the mind of God.

We are particularly concerned about the Open Letter Concerning the Appointment of the Bishop of Reading, to which you have put your names. It is our belief that our sexuality is God-given and a gift to us and to the Church and to reduce it to a purely biological and functional level in the way that you, notably the Bishop of Carlisle in the media, have done recently is unhelpful. There is so much more to us, including Jeffrey John, than what we do with our genitals, and we need to take a much more holistic perspective if this debate is to move any further on. It seems inconsistent of you, in particular, to make the issue of homosexuality the benchmark for orthodoxy, when there are so many other much more important subjects to be spoken of. It is notable that the bishops were divided over war with Iraq, in which thousands died, yet this did not cause the rifts of the present row, about which issue the gospels, though speaking powerfully of peace, say precisely nothing.

As young people, we are particularly concerned about what your letter says to so many of our contemporaries, both inside and outside the Church. Many of us struggled with our sexuality and, for many of us, it was because of the ministry of homosexual priests and ministers that we were able to come to terms with who we are. What would happen to so many young people coming to discover who they are, if such people as Jeffrey John, whose ethic of gay relationships is one of committed stability, were no longer given a place in the life of the Church? Are they not, in the words of the Bishop of Oxford, who has admirably stood by Jeffrey John's appointment, 'beloved of God'? Furthermore, you are in danger of making the Church an irrelevancy in a world that is becoming increasingly more accepting of diversity and plurality. We agree that the Church should be saying powerful things to our society, but to pontificate again and again on issues of sexual morality further compounds our irrelevancy and lack of understanding about the issues of the day.

We wish to assure you of our willingness to remain committed to the life of the Church. As lesbian and gay people, we are proud of our baptismal inheritance and we will seek to retain integrity in an institution that increasingly wants to compartmentalise our lives. We stand with all those lesbian and gay men and women who have witnessed throughout the ages to the message of love founded in Jesus Christ, and we remain committed to the day when the Church will be able to call itself truly catholic and inclusive.

Yours in Christ,

(members of YLGC)