12 Sep UK bishop: Church must say sorry for its treatment of gay people
Michael Perham, the Bishop of Gloucester, chaired a meeting with the Gloucester Gay and Lesbian Community to talk about treatment of gays by the church last week.
Michael Charlton-Hubble, chairman of the GGLC, told Gay Star News how the religious figure apologized on behalf of his church.
‘A lot of people from the gay community attend his cathedral, so we felt the bishop should come to one of our meetings and he accepted,’ he said.
‘The bishop put a great deal of thought into the meeting. He started with an apology from the Church of England to its LGBT members.’
He described the bishop as a liberal man who was happy to attend the meeting.
The meeting is only the second meeting of this kind between the church and the gay community of Gloucester. The first was in 1976. Charlton-Hubble said the reason for this was attitudes of previous church leaders.
‘We want the church to move forward and treat gays as a Christian organization should. But previous bishops were not interested in talking to us at all.’
Perham said the church has to be more forward thinking to keep up with changing attitudes towards gays: ‘The church may be moving slowly, but it will get there.
‘The vast majority of Christians are moving relatively fast towards a more modern way of thinking and towards a position where they should be.
‘It is a place where they should have reached a long time ago, but clearly not as quickly as the rest of society.’
He also spoke about views on marriage and how gay partnerships should be recognised as equal.
‘The church’s view on same sex marriage is not sustainable. But homosexuals must realize that the church is not homophobic. We should all celebrate committed, faithful and loving relationships,’ he said.
Charlton-Hubble said the meeting was a success and he hopes the communication between the gay community and the church continues.
Source: Gay star news