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A senior British Archbishop has called for the Anglican Church to revise its teachings on homosexuality.

The Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Rev Alan Harper, who is one of 38 primates in the worldwide Anglican Communion, said today that if “reason” were applied to the Bible texts that seem to condemn homosexuality, a different interpretation would be found.

He challenged the intellectual rigour of conservatives who use St Paul's epistles — in particular the first chapter of his Letter to the Romans where the Apostle condemns men who commit “unnatural” acts with other men — to bolster their argument that homosexuality is wrong.

Archbishop Harper, who will be among the most senior of the 700 bishops at the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, Kent, this month said that it was “inappropriate” to “anathematise” homosexuals on the basis of what St Paul says in this and other texts.

The Archbishop, a former professional archaeologist who was not ordained until he was 34, said scientists were still undecided on the issue of whether people were born homosexual or not, but indicated that it seemed increasingly likely that they had no choice in the matter.

If this was proven to be the case, the Church would have to accept that homosexuals committed “natural” rather than “unnatural” acts with each other.

He said that from its earliest days after the Reformation, the Church of England was a body open to evolution in its doctrines to take on board developments in science and understanding.

In a speech to the annual conference of the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in Swanwick in Derbyshire, cited the writings of the 16th-century Richard Hooker, who was as formative on Anglicanism as Thomas Cramner, the author of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

Archbishop Harper said that Hooker's Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, the work cited by conservative primates in Jerusalem last week as evidence for why the Church should not change, was in fact a text that gives reason to promote Anglicanism's openness to change.

His argument represents a challenge to “orthodox” thinking on the issue because in citing Hooker, he is using Anglican tradition to make the case for a more liberal approach.

Archbishop Harper is one of the few churchman who resists being pigeon-holed into any of the three categories of evangelical, liberal or traditionalist.

Calling on Anglican leaders to rediscover intellectual integrity when discussing key Bible texts, he said: “In particular, the crucial distinctions that Hooker makes between the whole body of scripture and what may be identified as the Law of God needs swiftly to be recovered.

“Let us be clear on this. 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 life of the Church.”

Speaking to The Times, Archbishop Harper said the argument that scripture should be approached in the light of reason was not his but Hooker's.

“Scant heed' had been paid to the key Anglican principles established by Hooker, he said, the recovery of which would do much to inform a mature discussion and analysis of the current situation clearly needed among Anglicans at this time.

He gave as an example the Genesis account of creation, where the Bible says God made the world in seven days and that the first woman, Eve, was made from Adam's rib. Some Christians believe this account is literally true, but Anglicans have traditonally taken an allegorical approach to this and similar texts.

Archbishop Harper, who is chairman of the world-leading Armagh Observatory, said: “If the Church were to take the view that the creation of the cosmos was that it was done in the timescale suggested in Genesis, many of us would find that approach unacceptable.” Scientific knowledge had made it clear a long time ago that a different approach was necessary, he argued.

“It would be very strange if, with the same level of information about issues to do with homosexuality, if we were not to incorporate that into our understanding of creation itself. That is precisely what Hooker says. He says creation is an insight into the Creator, and that all knowledge is precious.”

The United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, begun in 1701 by an evangelical clergyman, Dr Thomas Bray, evangelised large parts of the British Empire and elsewhere including southern, eastern, and central Africa and India, China and Japan. Many of these countries are where the present resistance to change on homosexuality is founded.