State must recognise gay civil unions, says top C of I cleric
Wednesday March 10 2004
However, Archdeacon Gordon Linney stated that he would not want the word 'marriage' attached to such relationships because "that is a term with very special dimensions and meaning".
He said he believed that "The State should enact legislation that would allow gay people to have registered relationships with all the benefits and rights that go with that status such as inheritance law and so forth."
This is the first time such a senior church figure in Ireland has made such a call.
It comes as the Church of Ireland hierarchy begins a listening process about the whole issue of human sexuality.
Last year, the bishops issued a pastoral letter on the subject, which outlined a number of positions, ranging from rejection to acceptance of homosexual activity that it said existed within the hierarchy.
Archdeacon Linney, who is number two to Archbishop John Neill in the archdiocese of Dublin, warned against "moral absolutism and rigidity".
In a speech which was delivered last night at Knox Hall, Monkstown, he said that Christians once condoned capital punishment, but most now oppose it, and that "until recently family planning was condemned - but not any longer by many of us".
Our view of marriage has also changed, he said.
The most important aspect of marriage is no longer having children, but "the relationship between the couple".
He went on to say: "Heterosexuals will have an instinctive resistance to the idea of an active homosexual relationship."
But, he said this focuses "too much on the physical and biological aspects of homosexuality and ignores relationships. This is unfair because it is relationships that we focus on in what I might call normal sexual liaisons", he said.
Archdeacon Linney said that in the majority of cases, people are homosexual by orientation and not by choice.
"They seek the freedom and the respect that would allow them the relationships that give them the completion and fulfilment that many of the rest of us find in our relationships".
He addressed the implications of his stance on gay unions with regard to "Scripture, Tradition and Reason".
"I don't go down the road of trying to explain away what the Bible clearly says.
"I know that some scholars have views especially about the Sodom incident but I think the Bible leaves us in no doubt of its disapproval".
However, he said that if we took the Bible literally in all things we would still permit slavery and other practices that would now be considered immoral.
In addition, while "tradition is as strongly against homosexuality as the Bible, it is the very nature of tradition that it changes".
He went on: "Jesus is far more likely to tell the moral absolutists to get out [of society] than gay people, who only ask that we allow them enjoy what we demand for ourselves and have, relationships."
"I have to ask how people who are so certain about homosexuality being evil could have been so indifferent and even devious when it comes to facing up to the issue of child abuse.
"Which has done greater harm? Jesus never mentions homosexuality, but has very severe warnings for those who 'cause one of those little one to stumble'".
He asked gay people to leave the word 'marriage' alone because it is "an emotive word" calling for "sensitivity and restraint".
He concluded: "Perhaps 80pc of me is in favour of a more tolerant and favourable approach to gay people, but there is that 20pc bit which, aware of past views, deeply rooted in my faith tradition, makes me acknowledge that I could be wrong.
"But I don't think so - I hope for and search for a truly Christian response."
- David Quinn Religious and Social Affairs Correspondent
