Lambeth 'merely a talking shop'

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A senior archbishop has criticised Lambeth Conference delegates for simply talking about the gay issue threatening to tear the Anglican community apart.

Leader of the Anglican Church in Hong Kong, Archbishop Paul Kwong said he was disappointed with mere discussions.

He claimed bishops at the Canterbury event spent more time defending their views about homosexuality.

The talks needed to produce some solutions to help heal the rift in the Church, the archbishop said.

Suggestions

Calling for concrete action, Archbishop Kwong said: "We have been beating about the bush and we have been spending a lot of time sharing and listening to each other.

"I would like to see if we can have some suggestions coming out from this conference from where you can go from here rather than simply talking about the things we have been talking about for years."

Archbishop Kwong is the first person at the conference to openly criticise the lack of resolution on the subject.

Although some traditionalists had been concerned debate about it was restricted to the last few days of the event and had claimed the conference was missing a rare opportunity to deal with the crisis.

Anglican officials had hoped the discussion by 40 bishops at the conference would help restore some of the trust lost in five years of church conflict over homosexuality.

Divisive issue

Traditionalist Anglicans say several passages in the Bible clearly outlaw active homosexuality.

But liberals say the Bible's general message is that all people should be included in the Church.

Since the ordination of the openly gay, and non-celibate, Bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson, in the US five years ago, divisions have become increasingly entrenched.

An American bishop has said that his church might, contrary to expectation, be prepared to promise not to ordain gay bishops in future and end the blessing of gay relationships.

However the Bishop of Louisiana, Charles Jenkins said that although Americans do not like being told what to do, they were ready to make sacrifices.

This week members of the Lesbian and Gay Christian movement held a protest and unfurled a banner outside a sports hall where the delegates were meeting.

The protesters, led by human rights activist Peter Tatchell, accused the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams of facilitating the views of "homophobes" at the conference.

But up to 250 clergy are boycotting the once-a-decade conference over the issue of gay bishops.

BBC News religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott in Canterbury says no issue has come as close to splitting worldwide Anglicanism as homosexuality.