THE TELEGRAPH: A senior Church of England bishop has called on homosexuals to repent and "be changed" in comments that have infuriated equality campaigners.
The Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, has defended traditional biblical teachings on homosexuality and said the Church should not be "rolled over by culture".
Dr Nazir-Ali spoke as tens of thousands of people, including Sarah Brown, the Prime Minister’s wife, joined the annual Pride London march to celebrate homosexual culture. A war of words broke out between Labour and the Conservatives over the issue of homosexuality last week after a minister accused the Tories of having a "deep strain of homophobia" running through the party.
The bishop’s controversial comments will reignite the battle over homosexuality in the Church of England ahead of what promises to be a divisive week for Anglicanism.
Tomorrow, a new coalition of evangelical and Anglo-Catholic parishes, backed by Dr Nazir-Ali, will get under way, which critics have claimed is an attempt to create a "church within the church".
The organisers said The Queen, the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, had sent a message to the leaders of the movement saying she understood their concerns about the future of the Anglican Communion. Next weekend the General Synod of the Church of England is meeting at York University. The following week, the Episcopal Church in America is expected to endorse liturgies for single sex marriage and allow more homosexuals to be made bishops.
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Dr Nazir-Ali said: "We want to uphold the traditional teaching of the Bible. We believe that God has revealed his purpose about how we are made.
"People who depart from this don’t share the same faith. They are acting in a way that is not normative according to what God has revealed in the Bible.
"The Bible’s teaching shows that marriage is between a man and a woman. That is the way to express our sexual nature.
"We welcome homosexuals, we don’t want to exclude people, but we want them to repent and be changed." >>> Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent | Saturday, July 04, 2009
