The Archbishop of Canterbury said yesterday that conflict over homosexuality is destabilizing world Christianity and that those who advocate its full acceptance are theological revisionists at odds with Scripture.
Archbishop George Carey, soon to retire as titular head of the world's 70 million Anglicans, also likened homosexuality to polygamy as a cultural "problem" and told a Toronto press conference: "The Bible is very, very clear, I mean it's very, very clear on where we stand on this issue."
Homosexuals, he said, should be part of the church, but he made it clear he could not bless their unions or ordain a practising homosexual as a priest -- a policy of the worldwide Anglican Communion that has been called hypocritical and two-faced by critics within the church.
Dr. Carey also revealed that Bishop Michael Ingham of Greater Vancouver's New Westminster diocese refused to shake his hand after Dr. Carey criticized him by name at a recent international church conference in Hong Kong and accused him of pushing the Anglican Church toward schism by making the decision to bless same-sex unions.
"I wouldn't say it's terribly cordial," Dr. Carey said of his relationship with Bishop Ingham. "He probably thinks I'm undermining his ministry, and I do regret that enormously."
Dr. Carey nevertheless warned Bishop Ingham and the Canadian Anglican House of Bishops -- which appears somewhat divided on the Vancouver decision -- that "if you go this way then it is going to impact on the Communion," the world Anglican Church.
Dr. Carey, in Toronto to receive an honorary degree from the University of Toronto's Wycliffe College, tried at least twice during his 25-minute news conference to get away from the subject of homosexuality. "We ought not to allow this issue to predominate this press conference," he said. At another point he said: "This isn't a life-and-death issue. It really isn't."
Several times he alternately made statements about the theological doors being closed on the matter and about the church needing "to bring together two world views" to resolve the conflict by "talking together and being together."
At one point, he acknowledged a contradiction in what he was saying.
"There is the problem . . . that comes to those of us who are orthodox, and that is how do we resolve the tension between the gospel [Christian Scripture], which is reaching out to everybody and which wants to include everybody, and yet is saying to people who may be in a homosexual relationship, 'You don't belong.' "
There are theological and Biblical scholars who disagree with Dr. Carey's interpretation of Scripture on homosexuality. His successor, Archbishop Rowan Williams, the Primate of Wales, has ordained a practising homosexual priest and is known to be highly critical of the church's policy.
The most vociferous opposition to acceptance of homosexuality comes from the Anglican Church in the Third World.
Dr. Carey compared homosexuality with polygamy in Nigeria, which he said the Anglican primate of Nigeria "is trying to deal with . . . in the way that I'm pleading that we should handle problems. . . ."
He continued: "There are these cultural differences, but central to resolving them must be our commitment first of all to one another in the same family," meaning that different parts of the church shouldn't go where the whole church is not prepared to go.
He reiterated his criticism that Bishop Ingham didn't consult with the world church before approving same-sex unions, that he didn't put the issue before the meeting of Anglican primates (the heads of the various national Anglican churches around the world), and that "it hasn't come to me as one of the instruments of unity."
Dr. Carey did not explain how he can be an instrument of unity when he clearly takes one side of the issue.
Bishop Ingham has said he did consult the Canadian church hierarchy on the issue