Gays and the Future of Anglicanism: Responses to the Windsor Report

Anglican Theological Review, Summer 2006 by Johnson, Jay Emerson

Gays and the Future of Anglicanism: Responses to the Windsor Report. Edited by Andrew Linzey and Richard Kirker. Winchester, UK: O Books, 2005. xxxviii 338 pp. $29.95 (paper).

This collection of often passionate responses to the Windsor Report brings together an impressive array of twenty-three biblical scholars, theologians, and historians who support lesbian and gay people in ordained ministry. Yet this collection is not merely another apologia for homosexuality. These essays address human sexuality on the terms set by Windsor itself and present a mostly persuasive case that the Lambeth Commission has, if not failed, then fallen seriously short of providing a suitable response to the contemporary ecclesial impasse among Anglicans.

The collection is divided into four parts. The first three address the particular issues identified by Windsor: the function of authority, the nature of communion, and the fact of diversity. Although each of these essays appreciates the challenges faced by the Commission, each also reflects disappointment, if not outright dismay, over its proposals. L. William Countryman, for example, worries about the "rush to quasi-papal authority," which the "astonishing" significance conferred upon the Primates' Meeting seems to indicate (p. 5). Likewise, Rowan Greer shares the deep concern reflected throughout this collection that Windsor has resorted to the "easier" and historically non-Anglican path of canonical and juridical proposals. "It trust lies at the heart of what binds us together, I fail to see how trust can be compelled" (p. 115).

The four essays in part 4, "Justice for Gays," make the overall concern of the first three parts even more explicit. By avoiding any direct engagement with the actual content of the matter under dispute, namely homosexuality, Windsor will likely perpetuate the very dynamics that created the current impasse. In that regard, both Adrian Thatcher and Andrew Linzey insist that moving forward will necessarily entail addressing the persistence of homophobic attitudes, or what Thatcher calls feelings of "loathing" and "disgust" toward lesbigay Christians (p. 277), that likely affect biblical interpretation, theological discourse, and ecclesial relations throughout the Communion.

These accessible essays, replete with citations for further study, condense into one volume many of the critical engagements with Scripture and theology that have been transpiring for more than thirty years. As several of these writers argue, this is precisely the scholarship that the 1978 and 1988 Lambeth Conferences called for (p. 229), but which has often been dismissed or ignored in the controversies. As a whole, this volume offers an unflinching look at some of the troubling dynamics that have shaped the current sense of crisis and that would only be exacerbated if Windsor's proposals were adopted. Whether one agrees with this assessment matters far less than the contribution this collection makes toward identifying the substantive issues that ought to be informing the debate.

Frankly, the boldly unapologetic and critical tone in this volume will likely put off some readers. As the book points out, however, rhetorical style does not suffice to explain the severe polarization infecting the Anglican Communion today. Facile dismissals on any side will not advance the conversation. This, Countryman argues, has been at the root of the crisis for years as many Anglicans have simply absented themselves from dialogue, adopting a "godlike refusal to participate" or to entertain any views that are not their own (p. 15).

I do think this volume could have been stronger in two respects. The first has to do with the suiprisingly sanguine posture Windsor adopted toward the continuing disagreements over women's ordination. Both Lisa Isherwood and Carter Hevwards contributions evoke this peculiarity and clearly link homophobia to misogynistic constructions of gender (pp. 50-51), which are still frequently overlooked in today's debates and receive only scant attention elsewhere in this volume. Unfortunately, the mostly antiquated usage of the word "gay" as a noun in the title of this collection perpetuates the problem by obscuring and at times erasing the experience of women and more generally of gender.

Second, at best only two of the twenty-three contributors appear to write from something other than a Euro-American context. Granted, the urgency to produce this volume (numerous typographical errors suggest that it was assembled in haste) may well have precluded a wider representation of voices. The result, however, could easily obscure the fact that disagreements over sexuality do not divide neatly between the Global North and the Global South. As Heyward argues, moving forward will mean acknowledging the interdependence of homophobia, sexism, racism, economic oppression, and imperialism (p. 324). If this is so, the voices gathered together should represent a broader conversation.

These are by no means fatal Haws in a volume of such rich biblical and theological reflection, which provides more than just a series of responses to Windsor. Beyond the machinations of church politics, readers will find in these essays a wealth of resources for biblical interpretation and theological insight that can contribute not only to an Anglican future but also and more broadly to the integrity and vitality of Christian witness in the twenty-first century. I hope and pray that this volume prompts the kind of genuine and faithful conversation for which these gifted scholars have provided material in abundance.