Is Welby listening to his Global South brothers and sisters who make up the vast bulk of the Anglican Communion? Do his PR and media boys and girls alert him to the quicksand he is walking into with his views? Will he appear at GAFCON II if invited to Nairobi and will he sign the Jerusalem Declaration in order to appear? Inquiring minds want to know.

In order not to appear a hate-filled bigot and homophobe, Archbishop Justin Welby began his illustrious career by saying he stood by civil partnerships, but opposed gay marriage, a distinction with little difference bearing in mind the Church of England’s Gaystapo who have taken a leaf out of The U.S. Episcopal Church playbook for total inclusion.

By acknowledging civil partnerships, Archbishop Justin Welby (and York Archbishop John Sentamu) have betrayed thousands of celibate gays and lesbians who believe that scripture is absolutely opposed to such behavior and, by indulging in it, risk their eternal salvation (I Cor. 6:9-11).

Church of England homosexuals see the debate as the thin end of the wedge or foot in the door to full inclusion, in time, of both gay marriage and the full acceptance of gays and lesbians ordained to all orders of ministry.

It is a done deal. Only time stands in their way.

Witness what the married openly gay priest, the Rev. Colin Coward of Changing Attitude, had to say. He accused the ABC of living in an Alice in Wonderland world. He said Welby’s remarks that a bill before parliament would create “different and unequal” forms of marriage that would undermine family life and that its “awkward shape” would undermine marriage as the basis for rearing children. He also said that “The concept of marriage as a normative place for procreation is lost. The idea of marriage as covenant is diminished. The family in its normal sense predating the state and as our base community of society is weakened.”

Not true, said Coward, an advocate for full inclusion. He said it was sad that Canterbury was repeating the fearful anxieties about which evidence from countries with equal marriage demonstrate the contrary. He said the bill could set back recent progress on gay rights by inflaming public opinion and warned that the bill lacks support in the population as a whole, and is likely to antagonize, or even inflame, public opinion.

Coward went on to rant about “God’s evolutionary outpouring of energy and new life in creation, new life for LGB&T people and for women, for the poor and outcast and marginalized as well as for the rich and powerful.” This is all theological rubbish of course, but the ABC has failed to deal with these issues head on.

So where is the win for the ABC?

The truth is by endorsing civil partnerships, he has thrown thousands of faithful celibate gay Anglicans under the bus. What he has said them, in so many words, is that it is okay to have anal sex in a committed relationship because I say so and God must agree with me because I am the ABC. Really. The last archbishop who tried that found out the hard way from Global South leaders and left office nine years early, deeply frustrated that he could not persuade the Okoh’s, Wabukala’s, Nzimbi’s et al of the Church that he had it right. The African archbishops lost all respect for him and ignored his primatial gatherings. Williams resigned. History, it would seem, is repeating itself.

Witness now the words of a Church of England vicar who wrote a stinging rebuttal to Welby headlined: DISAPPOINTMENT.

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