The archbishop of Canterbury is not being entirely straight forward in his claim that he was pressured by Members of Parliament to support the blessing of same-sex unions, some of the MPs who met with the Most Rev. Justin Welby have said.
In his presidential address to ACC 18 meeting in Accra on 12 Feb 2023, Archbishop Welby described the pressure he faced in connection with the Church of England General Synod’s forthcoming debate on the Living in Love and Faith process and the bishops’ proposal to introduce gay blessings.
said that, regarding the growing impact of atheism, “the result is clear”.
He added: “In the last few weeks, as part of our discussions about sexuality and the rules around sexuality in the Church of England, I talked of our interdependence with all Christians, not just Anglicans, particularly those in the global south with other faith majorities.
“As a result, I was summoned twice to Parliament, and threatened with parliamentary action to force same-sex marriage on us, called in England equal marriage.
“When I speak of the impact that actions by the Church of England will have on those abroad in the Anglican Communion, those concerns are dismissed by many, not all, but by many in the General Synod.”
He later added: “Obedience to God comes ahead of loyalty to country. That was not popular when I said it, last Monday night, to some Members of Parliament.”
He said: “The result is clear. In the last few weeks, as part of our discussions about sexuality and the rules around sexuality in the Church of England, I talked of our interdependence with all Christians, not just Anglicans, particularly those in the global south with other faith majorities.
“As a result, I was summoned twice to Parliament and threatened with parliamentary action to force same-sex marriage on us, called in England ‘equal marriage’.
“When I speak of the impact that actions by the Church of England will have on those abroad in the Anglican Communion, those concerns are dismissed by many, not all, but by many in the General Synod.”
He added: “Obedience to God comes ahead of loyalty to country. That was not popular when I said it, last Monday night, to some Members of Parliament.”
On 13 Feb 2023, Sir Chris Bryant, the member for Rhondda wrote on twitter:
“Sorry +Cantuar but if this is an accurate record of what you said it’s untrue. Nobody ordered you or threatened you. We had a warm, kindly conversation amongst parliamentarians about the pain being suffered by many [LGBT+] people.”
Ben Bradshaw, the member for Exeter, told the Telegraph, Archbishop Welby “seems to be claiming to the conservative African churches that the baby steps taken last week to tackle homophobia in the Church of England are being forced on him by Parliament, while telling Anglicans here, the majority of whom support same-sex marriage in church, that he and his fellow Bishops can’t go further because it would alienate the Africans.
“He also appears to blame the pressure to stop discriminating against gay and lesbian Anglicans on the ‘secularisation of the West’ when it is people of faith within the Church of England who are leading the calls for change. I wish the Archbishop would say what he really believed and stick to it, rather than saying different things to different audiences.”
Conservatives were equally harsh in their reactions to the speech. The Rev. Paul Eddy, the convenor of Orthodox Anglican noted: “Sadly, as we found at the Lambeth Conference, the archbishop tells church leaders something which, in their culture, means something different to ours, knowing they don’t have independent advisers on hand to explain. The truth is ‘parliament’ does not mean the UK ‘government’, which is what Anglican Communion delegates, from 40-plus nations, just arrived in Ghana, will think.”
Mr Eddy says MPs on both sides of the aisle told him their respective Party leadership has no interest in “starting a debate about the CofE, of which the King is the ‘supreme governor’, in his year of Coronation. Or, unsettling relations with other faiths in sensitive areas of the nation.”
Mr Eddy said: “If parliament were to try to take away the CofE’s exemptions under the 2010 Equality Act, it would mean the British Parliament would take away the historic ‘freedom of religion’ when, across the globe we criticise other Governments for persecuting people of faith. It wouldn’t stand up to legal challenge. It is nonsense and the archbishop knows it. Justin Welby is giving just enough information to make delegates think he had no alternative. But he is not telling them the whole truth.”
