Sir, As the Archbishop of Canterbury who presided over the 1998 Lambeth Conference which declared its mind so decisively on the issue of practising homosexuality (letters, November 5), I can only share the principled distress of the primates of the Global South and others who have expressed themselves so strongly in recent days. They are surely right to do so.

The damage done to ecumenical relations, inter-faith dialogue and the mission of the worldwide Church is incalculable.

Whatever the way forward in maintaining communion between the two sides, I can only add my voice to that of my successor in encouraging all those most deeply affected not to drift away from each other, but to strengthen the bonds of affection that remain at the heart of Anglicanism.

Above all, let us resist encouraging the idea that the only thing we are interested in is this one issue. Even now, wherever one goes in the world Anglican Christians are working with others in issues of life and death — poverty, conflict resolution, Aids/HIV, relief to the very poor and compassion to the dying — to say nothing of the witness of the Church to a living faith. In this country thousands of churches are still getting on with their work in faithful service.

My fear is that this action, taken so unilaterally by the Episcopal Church of the United States, will hurt most deeply the mission of the Church in the Global South. We must all pull together to avoid that.

Yours faithfully,
GEORGE CAREY
(Archbishop of Canterbury, 1991-2002),
House of Lords.
November 5.

From the Reverend Andrew Furlong

Sir, It is liberating to have an understanding of the scriptures of the major world faith traditions which allows me to say: “That is what people claimed thousands of years ago to be right or to be the will of their god, but what they believed then does not constrain how I think today.”

To my mind, it is part of the dignity and responsibility of being human that we have to work out our moral conclusions, however provisional, for ourselves.

Yours,
ANDREW FURLONG
(Dean of Clonmacnoise, 1997-2002),
12 Tubbermore Road,
Dalkey, Co Dublin.
tiripo@gofree.indigo.ie
November 4.

From the Bishop of Durham

Sir, Ruth Gledhill described me as an “open evangelical” (report, October 30); now Mrs Rosanne Anggard declares (letter, November 4) that she belongs to the “wing” which I lead.

Before this thing gets out of hand, let me quote from a book I wrote 11 years ago:

It is time to forget evangelicalism and concentrate on the gospel; to forget catholicism and concentrate on the church and its mission; to forget liberalism and concentrate on clear thinking; to forget the charismatic movement and invoke the Spirit of the living God (New Tasks for a Renewed Church, Hodders, 1992).

If this makes me an evangelical liberal pente-catholic, so be it. Birds need bodies as well as wings.

Yours, etc,
@ TOM DUNELM:,
Auckland Castle,
Bishop Auckland,
Co Durham DL14 7NR.
November 4.

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