THE Archbishop of Canterbury has been forced to give way to the conservative element in the Anglican Church and climb down over the appointment of a gay bishop.

Dr Jeffrey John issued a brief letter withdrawing his acceptance of the post of Bishop of Reading yesterday after a six-hour meeting at Lambeth Palace on Saturday at which Dr Williams set out the threats to church unity posed by the appointment.

Church leaders’ fears about the appointment had grown when it became clear that threats from wealthy evangelical parishes to divert funds away from the diocese were real. Had parishes in other dioceses followed suit, the Church’s financial problems would have become crippling.

After wide consultation with senior diocesan bishops and evangelical leaders, Dr John was called to Lambeth Palace on Saturday and told to stand down. The meeting, which began at 8am, lasted so long because he refused to sign the first draft of his letter of withdrawal and it took time to negotiate an acceptable form of wording.

Yesterday Dr Williams called for a pause for thought after the “open and painful” confrontation that had “severely strained the bonds of mutual trust”. He said: “We need now to give ourselves opportunities honestly to think through what has happened and to find what God has been teaching us in these difficult days.” He described some opposition to the appointment as “very unsavoury indeed” and said letters he had received had displayed a “shocking level of ignorance and hatred towards homosexual people”.

Dr John’s withdrawal represents a serious setback for the liberal wing of the Church in the face of protests from evangelicals who had opposed the appointment from the start.

Even though Dr John abides by church policy and is in a sexually abstinent relationship with his partner of 27 years, evangelicals were concerned that he had not expressed public “repentance” for the fact that his relationship previously had been active.

In his letter of withdrawal to the Bishop of Oxford, Dr John said it had become clear to him that his consecration would damage the unity of the Church. The Right Rev Richard Harries replied: “I much respect your decision, made in the interest of wider church unity. However, I would like you to know that not only did you have my unswerving support, but also that of a great many others in the diocese.”

Although the retreat will appease evangelicals, it is being viewed with concern by liberals who had hoped that Dr Williams’s appointment as Archbishop in succession to the evangelical Dr George Carey would herald a broader, more open Church.

The strongest statement came from the Dean of Southwark, the Very Rev Colin Slee, who described it as “a sad day for the Church of England, a very sad day for the Oxford Diocese and a tragedy for a superbly gifted priest and scholar”. Dr John, who is now canon theologian at Southwark Cathedral, had become the victim of “appalling prejudice and abuse”. He added: “The Church has to address the manner in which this relatively small group has sought to undermine the authority of the Archbishop and thereby the Church as a whole.”

The dean said that Dr John had a high doctrine of duty to the Church and had told him in early June that he would withdraw if asked. “He would not voluntarily withdraw. He is absolutely vindicated in all that we have been saying about his honesty and integrity. He was asked to do the job and he said yes; now it would appear that he has been asked to withdraw and he has again said yes.”

The dean accused a “minority of Christians” of using the natural interest of the press to further their own agenda and subject Dr John to a campaign of persecution. “They have also used the cultural gulf that exists between a few, not all, developing countries and Western churches to call in reinforcements to blackmail the Anglican Communion with threats of schism because they know they do not actually have a clear mandate beyond their narrow congregations in this country.

“They make a noise out of all proportion to their size, use monetary wealth as a tool and are being allowed to set the agenda in a manner which is deleterious to the Church at large.”

Dr John’s withdrawal came on the same day that Lord Carey admitted that he had knowingly ordained two gay bishops in the 1990s. In an interview with The Sunday Times, he said that he had been prepared to go ahead after they had assured him they were celibate.

The disclosure, combined with Dr John’s withdrawal, will add to concerns about double standards in the Church. The General Synod, which meets in York this week, is certain to be dominated by questions of why gay priests can be promoted if their sexuality remains private but are denied high office if they are prepared to be open about it.

The mood in the broader Church of England was reflected in a discussion on Coin, the Christians on the Internet website. One clergyman said: “I am speechless with shame.” In a statement to The Times yesterday, the Archbishop of York, Dr David Hope, said: “It is very clear that ignorance, bigotry and homophobia are still very much alive. No wonder gay and lesbian people feel unwelcome in the Church.”

But the African archbishop who threatened to break with the Church of England over the appointment welcomed the resignation and said that he had no qualms about the tactics used to achieve it.

The Most Rev Peter Akinola, the Archbishop of Nigeria, said of his schism warnings: “I wasn’t making threats, it was a statement of fact. We aren’t a Church of ‘anything goes’. We believe in the Scriptures, we believe there are boundaries. We believe that there are ‘don’ts’ and there are ‘dos’.

Dr Williams’s statement yesterday emphasised the consideration he had given to the perspective of the wider Anglican Communion. The leaders of a number of provinces besides Nigeria had expressed opposition to the appointment.

The problem he faced was exacerbated by the timing of the appointment, shortly after the approval of same-sex blessings in the New Westminster Diocese in Canada and the election of an openly gay cleric as Bishop of New Hampshire.

It aroused fears among evangelicals that a liberal agenda was being pursued by the West with no concern for unity.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• An officer and a gentle woman
• Dame Helen Mirren is worthy of the Epidaurus
• Foods that can help to prevent swine flu