Gladwin: I blame the devil

The other headline for this story could have been, 'Gladwin: crisis what crisis?' This is John Gladwin's first press conference about his difficulties in Kenya. Hours earlier, he and his wife Lydia had stepped off the plane back at Heathrow. Two days before, the rest of the party of 20 had returned. Canon Roger Matthews, who stood up in the cathedral and said the local press reports about his bishop's links to a gay and lesbian club were untrue, is on the far left. (The last time I met him, it was to report on the activites of a service being run by clown, a 'holy fool', at the Lakeside shopping centre.) Next to him is Stephen Webb, chief exec of the Chelmsford diocese, then Bishop Gladwin, and then his chaplain Chris Newlands, himself active in gay and lesbian Christian activism.See my story for Timesonline here. Pic here by me on mobile phone, fabulous pics below by Chris Harries. Update Friday: statement from Nzimbi pasted at end.. from this, it is clear that things are not looking quite as rosy as Gladwin would have us believe.

At first the press conference was like stepping through the proverbial looking glass. For a minute I thought the bishop was blaming the press, when he suggested we might have exaggerated his difficulties. But when I reminded him that blaming the press is what governments traditionally do shortly before they lose a general election, he stated emphatically that he was not blaming the press. If it was anyone's fault, it was the devil's. And no, the press was not in this instance the incarnation of that particular entity.

So clearly he has not strayed a far as some had feared from his evangelical roots. And in the end, he did convince me that the situation is as he insisted: the programme was reinstated after it was temporarily cancelled, good relations had been nurtured in Kenya, if anything the 30-year relationship between Kenya and Chelmsford has been strengthened. (A quick check with Archbishop Nzimbi's office later indicated that Archbishop Nizimbi was not saying anything further beyond his original statement cancelling the programme of the Chelmsford party. Nzimbi did not mention either reinstating the trip, but nor did he in any way confirm the rumour going around journalists in Kenya, that he was no longer in communion with Gladwin."

Of the day after the stories about his gay links appeared in the Kenyan press, and Archbisop Nzimbi cancelled the programme, Bishop Gladwin said: “We were really downhearted. That was a very low moment. We thought we were in deep trouble.”

The party prayed a lot, asking God for help. Bishop Gladwin said he was given encouragement by Archbishop Nzimbi’s predecessor, Archbishop Gitari. He later had a face-to-face meeting with Archbishop Nzimbi when they resolved their difficulties and the programme continued as planned. Bishop Gladwin said: “When the Lord is doing something important the devil is at work.

"It is absolutely essential that we make sure that the devil does not destroy the good that is going on. It could have been utterly destructive. It was not.” Bishop Gladwin, who was giving a press conference at his diocesan offices after flying into Heathrow with his wife Lydia, had said earlier this year that one of his aims was to give the diocese of Chelmsford a higher public profile.

But getting himself and a party of 20 curates anathematized by conservative evangelicals in Africa cannot have been what he had in mind. The visit, planned as part of ongoing relations between Kenya and Chelmsford that have been in place for 30 years, covered the four dioceses of Meru, Mbeere, Kirinyaga and Embu. Bishop Gladwin said he had no regrets about becoming patron of Changing Attitude and did not believe this brought him into conflict with either the Church of England’s position on the gay issue, or that of the wider church as expressed through the resolution of the 1998 Lambeth Conference that pledged the Church to strictly biblical, conservative stance.

“The Archbishop of Kenya was concerned over some of the issues that were raised, but we were not abandoned in the middle of the Kenyan bush as some may have had you believe,” he said. “Though I can say that if we had been abandoned, Embu would have been a lovely place to spend the rest of our time in."

He continued: “When we finally did get to talk to Archbishop Nzimbi, he wanted to assure us that a warm Kenyan welcome continued to surround us, and that the planned programme should continue. With his agreement, we decided to avoid any high profile occasions to avoid being drawn into any controversies that would divert us from the principal aim of the visit.” He said that if anything, the relationship between Kenya and Chelmsford had grown deeper as a result of the controversy.

He then went on to raise the issue of polygamy, itself subject to an earlier Lambeth Conference resolution against its practice. Gladwin cited this resolution and continued: "In the midst of the public controversy one of my curates visited a Christian village where polygamy is quite widespread. I read literature in Kenya about how Anglican churches quite carefully handle that issue. One of the benefits, however difficult in the context of the Anglican Communion at the moment, one of the benefits is we in England could learn a lot from the experience of the African church handling an issue like that. This is where the relationship becomes really important and beneficial. It is vitally important in the Anglican Communion that we do not allow these things to be destroyed."

He said a number of bishops in Kenya had talked to him about the gay issue. "They said, 'We know we have got to talk about these issues. But we do not know how to talk about them.' That is why the Anglican Communion is important. We must not allow strident voices of one sort or another to pull us apart."

Canon Matthews, who at one stage during the visit stood up during a cathedral service to defend his bishop against accusations in the Kenyan press that he had links with a gay and lesbian club, said: “The experience certainly did drive the group to prayer in a way that was more poignant than it might have been. The 24 hours when we were away from mobile phone connections and landlines was a worrying time.”

I challenged Bishop Gladwin quite hard on whether it had not been a tad provocative to become patron of Changing Attitude at this particularly sensitive time in the life of the Anglican Communion.

He was unrepentant. "Changing Attitude is made up of members of the Church of England who are seeking to be loyal and faithful Christians. I think it is very important when dealing and working with groups of people who represent a challenge to us that we work with them rather than do things for them."

He was adamant that his patronage did not mean he was in any way in breach of Lambeth or the Windsor process. Other patrons include Gene Robinson and Peter Selby. "The bishops who agreed to be patrons of Changing Attitude believe that the words Changing Attitude are what the organisation is about, namely helping the Church to enable gay and lesbian people to be fully included in the life of the Church. Also that we have in this organisation a body that will be helpful in the listening process. None of us is required to abandon our commitment to the Lambeth resolution or the Windsor process. All these, we fully support. I was not asked to endorse the views of Changing Attitude when I became a patron."

Anglican Mainstream has more on this story and some background here. Thinking Anglicans and Changing Attitude also have lots of good links. And if you want to hear some of the bishop's wonderful optimism for yourself, go along to this meeting, on the Chelmsford-Kenya links, where he will be speaking on 25 June.

And this is what Archbishop Nzimbi said after seeing this report of Gladwin's comments: "I have read Bishop Gladwin’s statement on arrival to England from his visit from Kenya with 20 others last week.  I would wish to make it clear that when we heard that Bishop Gladwin after only a day’s stay in Kenya was a patron of Changing Attitude which advocates the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people at all levels in the church, we distanced ourselves from him and his group as this is where we differ. When we differ with people in Africa, we still give them hospitality but this does not mean that we agree with them. WE DO NOT. In Kenya we have these gay and lesbian people in the community but we do not approve of what they are doing. We speak to them and give them pastoral care so that they may do the right thing. We do not however believe that men should marry men or women marry women.  We believe in marriage between a man and a woman … (Lambeth 1998 Resolution 1.10) I did not go further when speaking with Bishop Gladwin. We do not share his views as a patron of Changing Attitude.  I have made no statement about whether we are in communion with him. We will wait for that to be done collectively by the Provincial Synod. But I can say that anyone advocating for the full inclusion of gays and lesbians in the leadership of the church cannot be in communion with the Province of Kenya because we have said categorically that we do not support that. They are not abiding with our stand so we cannot be in communion with them."

(Further update, 5.6.6: Thank you to Thinking Anglicans for drawing my attention to Giles Fraser's latest Church Times offering. I am honoured to be the subject of a CT column by Giles - thank you Giles! Giles suggests I described Gladwin as an 'extreme liberal' because of my support for Israel and Gladwin's chairmanship of Christian Aid. I just wanted to put the record straight. Hand on heart, I can say I did so not because of this, but because he has become a patron of Changing Attitude. Of course Gladwin was once an evangelical, possibly he thinks he still is. But we journalists are always being urged to think 'outside the box', and not just assume someone is still something because they once were. Only God is unchanging, and we humans might even be wrong about.

I do get these things wrong, though. Once I had a great dispute with my colleague Mary Ann Sieghart, about Giles himself. Mary Ann insisted he was a liberal catholic. Having been recently to one of his communion services at Putney, I countered that he was an open evangelical. Jane Williams, wife of Rowan, was present at the time and she intervened to restore civility. She couldn't speak for Giles, but gave her opinion that the 'decider' on this today is where a person stands on the gay issue. I realise now I was wrong about Giles. He is definitely an extreme liberal - and so is Gladwin.)

ruth gledhill

religion homosexuality Anglican Church of England Christianity gays Africa Kenya

Comments

[Nersen Pillay]

Mike Homfray - do you realise that African churches are refusing financial help from certain provinces? They are not holding out any "begging bowl" and because they have large growing churches, are increasingly less dependent financially. Clearly, they are intellectually independent too with more earned doctorates than certain churches closer to home.

If you want to see financial parasites, have a look in England rather than Africa! There are lots of people who for years get housed and paid while their "inclusive" churches include fewer and fewer people. Every year, they get out a "begging bowl" as you put it, looking for cash from the nasty evangelicals with their outdated, unsophisticated, "African" beliefs in the authority of the Bible....

Even in England, the churches which share the the faithful African bishops views have had decades of strong growth and are financially independent and give to the centre rather than drain resources away to fund more decline.

Africa is an Anglican success story with strong growth continuing -it is certainly not African Anglicans who are financial parasites.

[Matthew Oakley]

I deplore the standard of journalism in this article. The bishop is quoted as saying that he was not abandoned in the Kenyan bush 'as some would have you believe'. Yet Ruth Gledhill asserts the accusation in the headline. I think UK journalists in general prefer to entertain rather than enlighten.

(rg replies: we aim both to entertain and to enlighten. The headline you refer to was, I believe, on a previous blog written before we had a chance to speak to the bishop. If you are referring to one in the newspaper hardcopy, of course I am sure you understand that subs write our headlines, we reporters have no control over what goes in them. But thank you for the comments, I always welcome informed criticism.)

[Hugh Pratt]

great article Ruth - keep it up!

Thanks

[Keith Downer]

Nerson has provided one of the most accurate and enlightening descriptions of the prevailing attitude of the "leaders" of our Anglican Church I have read for a long time; "believe what you like as long as you are 'nice'". That just about says it all.

[John Maksim]

God bless Archbishop Nzimbi for having the moral courage to speak up and to be clear. There is so little moral energy or courage in the West any more. It is unbelievable how a once-great civilization has sunk so far into perversion and effeminacy.

Rome!

[John Richardson]

I have posted a reply to the Fulcrum piece at http://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/forum/thread.cfm?thread=826 as I feel it significantly misrepresents what I said elsewhere in their forum and, furthermore, implies there is a desire somewhere in all this to break up the fellowship between our diocese and the diocese of Kenya. I would, furthermore, point out here what I point out there: there does not need to be any rift in Chelmsford between 'the diocese' and 'the orthodox' in the diocese. We, as much as anyone, are the diocese. The diocesan management, including the Bishops, are just its servants. The point to bear in mind is that the Bishop has agreed to become patron of a campaign group opposed to the position of the 1998 Lambeth Resolution 1.10. He cannot have expected this to be received passively, but I do not know what he expected (or hoped for) from this action.

[Mike Homfray]

It is, I bleive, permissible to hold views other than conservative evangelical ones within the CofE - as much as the fundamentalists would like it to be otherwise.

Thus, John Gladwin is entirely entitled to be patron of a christian group which holds views different to those of conservative evangelicals.

It is more and more apparent that the CofE and the wider Anglican Communion must and will split. Churches such as that of kenya can hardly expect us all to kow-tow to their premodern superstitions.

I do hope they willnot hold out their begging bowl for yet more money and support.I give no money to homophobes. Let them starve or stand on their own feet for a change. All we hear from Africa is their constant whingeing and complaining about how hard done by they are whilst expecting to both lay down the law and for everyone else to subsidise their prejudices.

If they can't adopt liberal and humane policies of the civilised world, then they must manage on their own.

[James]

Christian love is about what is truly best for the other - which is to become like Christ (in all ways [not just the convenient ones]). Being nice (political correctness) is not ever offending anyone. That, in many cases, is a vicious form of unlove. Political correctness always drains away truth and love.

Nersen rightfully exposes the 'believe what you want as long as you are nice' idiocy as profoundly unChristian.

James

[Stephen Corbett]

Along with Nersen Pillay, may I also disassociate myself form the "cooking pot" comment (below). We need to focus on the substance of this issue; ie. that we cannot go on indefinitely trying to "have it both ways". This is the real issue that the Bishop (and others) need to face.

[Christopher Shell]

In saying he was not asked to assent to CA's doctrines, Bp Gladwin is
(1) stating a negative when he could have stated a positive
(2) being unclear when he could have been clear
(3) saying something puzzling when he could have said something that added up.

[Christopher]

Cooking pot is good. That is what the Anglican Church has gradually become since the days when Fr Faber called it "Old Mother Damnable" and the Catholic Church encouraged that view. While it claims to be the Church of England it must serve the whole nation; if a narrow sectarian spirit takes over, claiming it and no one else represents "biblical values", whatever that is supposed to mean, brooking no disagreement or dissent, then let it become a sect (exclusive) with all its worshippers facing the same way and jumping to a common tune and, ceasing any longer to be a church (inclusive) which welcomes all, get disestablished right away.

[Ray]

Bishop John is a man of profound christian faith and courageous in support of those facing injustice whether that be in Palestine or gays in the C of E. We are blessed by God to have him as our diocesan bishop.

[Nersen Pillay]

Disgraceful, stupid comment from Roy Angel - the Kenyans are not cannibals.

The Kenyan who correctly objected to Gladwin's equivocation and "doublethink" is a senior Anglican bishop with great theological knowledge and training.....and has views shared by many Anglicans in Australia, the US and England who I guess Roy Angel would not caricature as cannibals.

Remember, the issue in the Anglican church is not Africans v the rest or Global South v the West but those who believe in the authority of the Bible v those who have created another religion (which shrinks churches and requires huge subsidies) based on post-modern ideas which can be summed up as "believe what you like as long as you are 'nice'"

Cannibals have done a lot less damage to the Anglican church than the "wishy-washy" brigade who have made the CofE an irrelevance in England as many churches dwindle. Interesting to see even the liberal English media give more respect to the RC church and popes - maybe because, even if they are wrong, they believe something and are not blown about by "liberal" non-Christian views and don't try and fool people into accepting that anyone can with integrity uphold two positions at the same time.

[Byron Estes]

The Bishop's comments were entirely appropriate and wonderful to hear. The tagline on the blog article is silly, referencing the devil statement. Thank God for the Bishop and others like him who continue to face into the central issue of Christian love. Some of the other comments here are disheartening, to say the least. I hope there is a bit of a fan club emerging for the Bishop and for his efforts to stay engaged with the Kenyan Church.

[Stephen Corbett (Revd)]

I am left wondering what planet some of our bishops think they are living on. So Bishop Gladwin believes that by becoming a Patron of "Changing Attitude" he is not thereby endorsing their views - simply because they didn't ask him to do so at the time he agrred to this new role. Moreover, he thinks this action doesn't place him at odds with the spirit of the Windsor Report.

Well, I would not presume to know what goes on inside the Bishop's head, but surely most people - regardless of their view on this subject - can see the inconsistency here?

[James]

Deviant sexual acts like sodomy are incompatible with a Christian life.

Telling or teaching people (and especially our young ones) otherise is a form of evil.

James

[Alan Marsh]

The poor Bishop has either not read the aims and objectives of Changing Attitude, or closed his eyes while he was doing so.

Who does he think he has convinced that he holds to the biblical view of homosexuality? Certainly not the Kenyans, and now nobody else.

Why does he not have the courage to come out openly and say what he believes, of which he has given numerous examples, instead of saying one thing and asking us to believe another?

[Roy Angel]

Good on the Kenyans! The Bisop was lucky not to have ended up in the cooking pot!