Full interview with Rt Rev Harold Miller
PROMINENT Church of Ireland bishop Harold Miller — who returned from the Lambeth Conference this week — tells SAM McBRIDE that the Church can never accept bless gay relationships.
BISHOP Harold Miller admits that most of his parishioners didn't even know that the last Lambeth Conference - in 1998 - was taking place.
But this year, as the crisis over the Church's approach to homosexuality threatened to tear the Anglican Communion apart, those same members of his Down and Dromore Diocese were keenly aware of the once-in-a-decade bishops' meeting in London.
Bishop Miller, the Church of Ireland's most prominent evangelical bishop, thought seriously about joining more than 200 bishops, many of them from Africa, in boycotting the event because they refuse to have communion with those who ordained an openly-gay bishop in America.
Speaking to the News Letter from his Belfast office in Church of Ireland House, the father-of-four expressed his views on how the Church should approach the issue of homosexuality.
And, entering the debate over Archbishop Alan Harper's comment that if science can prove homosexuality to be "natural" then the Church may need to reconsider its approach to the issue, Bishop Miller explained why he disagreed.
"If you say that because you are born with a certain inclination then it is God-given and you should be free to follow that through in your life, it doesn't make any logical sense whatever," he said.
"You would then have to say that there are many different inclinations with which people are born — even if it is true that this is an inherent thing — and which people spend their lifetime trying to subdue.
"The fact that you are born with it doesn't make any moral judgement on the inclination. People fight to subdue inherently bad tempers, depressive streaks or lots of sexual inclinations. Some inclinations are good, some are not good and some are mixed."
Bishop Miller warned that changing positions on homosexuality would open up other areas of debate, some of which may be even more divisive.
"I stood at the front gate of a Cathedral in America last month and read a notice saying 'Anybody going on the LGBT parade come to the Cathedral first and have your relationship blessed by the bishop'.
"There's no doubt about it — it's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered for a start — so the thing has widened already and you have to ask: what does it mean for someone who's born bisexual to follow their inclination or inclinations?"
Speaking to a missions conference in England last month, Archbishop Alan Harper said: "It has not yet been conclusively shown that for some males and some females homosexuality and homosexual acts are natural rather than unnatural.
"If such comes to be shown, it will be necessary to acknowledge the full implications of that new aspect of the truth, and that insight applied to establish and acknowledge what may be a new status for homosexual relationships within the church."
But Bishop Miller said he did not believe proving homosexuality to be natural would make any difference to the Church's position.
"If it is proven (that homosexuality is natural) it makes no difference at all," he said.
"The Archbishop was doing a very thoughtful piece and quite rightly pointing out that some parts of the Word of God are considered as law that affects our lives and that some of the ritual laws of the Old Testament are not laws which affect our lives now.
"But he then did an exposition of Romans Chapter 1...if you are to say 'I am naturally homosexual', that would make no difference to Paul's argument."
Asked if he disagreed with what the Archbishop had said, Bishop Miller responded: "I would say that if that is the meaning (that the Church may have to reconsider its position on homosexuality), then I do not agree with that."
But he stressed that the Church of Ireland was sufficiently broad and accepting for him to hold different views to those of the Archbishop.
He said: "We live in a wonderful Communion where you can disagree with each other.
"I don't think any of us knows at this point whether the Anglican Communion will ever be the same again.
"It's worth holding together but it's not worth holding together at all costs — truth is more important than unity."
Bishop Miller said that he saw "no sign" that anyone in the Church of Ireland would bless gay relationships.
However, he stressed that gay people were welcome in his denomination.
"I want to say this as strongly as I can — as far as any Church of Ireland Bishop is concerned, and certainly speaking for myself, the fact that somebody was by their inclination gay would not in any way be a bar to anything in the Church," he said.
"Inclination is neither here nor there. The issue is whether they are practising and that would be a bar.
"I don't think that there are any members of the Church of Ireland are going out on some anti-gay drive or to harm gay people.
"I think that they are more than happy to welcome them into their Churches but I think that what they find difficult is an affirmation, as many people would see it, that what is being said is that what is wrong is right."
Reflecting on the outcome of the Lambeth Conference, which finished on Sunday, Bishop Miller said that he was pleased that the conference had concluded with a "very strong affirmation" by the Archbishop of Canterbury of four "key things":
*** The uniqueness of Christ as the only saviour of the world;
*** Lambeth resolution 1.10 — passed at the last Lambeth conference with a vote of 526 to 70 — which said that the only appropriate place for sex was in the context of marriage;
*** That those who want to persuade people of a new position, it's their task to persuade, it's not the task of those who hold to the present position to argue their case
*** And he recognised that there had been a lot of good to come out of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) — the large June gathering of conservative and tradiiontal Angicans in Jerusalem — and that the Church needed to build bridges with those people.
"I went to Lambeth with a lot of qualms and I have returned with a lot of qualms but there are one or two things that are very good about it.
"If you belong to a worldwide communion, broken though it may be, the opportunity to meet with fellow bishops and Christian leaders from all over the world is invaluable."
And he defended the rigorous debates going on within Anglicanism, while other Churches, such as the Roman Catholic Church, have very clearly defined positions.
"It's undoubtedly true that Anglicans, and most Protestants, value very much indeed individual conscience and being able to think through issues in a way that doesn't muzzle people so they can raise issues and talk out about issues even if they are uncomfortable issues.
"There is no doubt that the Church of Ireland is the kind of Church where people would want the freedom to raise issues.
"Everyone agrees that there are much more important issues than this — there is poverty and there is war and we are being deflected from those issues because of this issue.
"On the other hand, one of the Orthodox representatives at the Lambeth Conference said 'Your questions are our questions.
"I think that the Anglican Communion is probably working through this issue on behalf of the whole Church and there are other Churches that know perfectly well that this is an issue but they have never been in a position to either admit it or mention it but are looking on to see how the Anglican Communion is going to resolve this."
And, in a comparison laden with irony given the issue which has sent the Anglican Communion into turmoil, he compared the conference to marriage counselling, with Archbishop Rowan Williams as the marriage counsellor seeking to reconcile both sides.
He added of the three-week conference: "It got better as it went on and where we ended up on the last day was maybe as good a point as we could have arrived at."
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Monday 28 May 2012
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