THE CHURCH of Ireland bishops have appealed to “people of all shades of opinion” within the church “to refrain from any actions or the use of emotive or careless language which may further exacerbate the same-sex debate within the church”.Such restraint, the bishops add, will greatly facilitate the work ahead.
“Recent well-publicised events” in the church “concerning the issue of serving clergy and civil
partnerships have caused considerable hurt and confusion to many”.
This is understood to be a reference to the disclosure last month that Dean of Leighlin (Carlow) the Rev Tom Gordon and his male partner of 20 years entered a civil partnership last July.
Following a three-day meeting of the church’s bishops earlier this week, they said a major conference on sexuality was being planned for next spring and a pastoral letter would be issued.
The letter was published on the website ireland.anglican.org.
“For some time,” the letter said, “the bishops of the Church of Ireland had planned to undertake a review of their pastoral letter of 2003 on human sexuality. The recent debate in the Church of Ireland on issues of sexuality has given added impetus to the bishops’ process of reflection."
“We also hope, in a structured way, to engage the church at every level in this endeavour.”