One of my most cherished understandings of the church is that it is to be a sanctuary for life. Sanctuary is a concept deep in our tradition: From the midwives who saved the Hebrew baby boys from pharaohs wrath, through history when the church has facilitated the escape of slaves and protected Jews in wartime, to 2016 when our Cathedral offered a place of safety for refugees in danger of removal. The call of the church has always been to protect lives and promote human dignity.
In Anglicanism this has been formalised in our marks of mission: to announce good news, to grow the life of our communities, to address human need with love; to transform structures that are unjust; and safeguard the integrity of life.
This is the mission of our global Anglican communion. There is absolutely no agreeance between this mission and the Church of Uganda’s support for the criminal persecution of LGBTQIA persons – a move will only escalate discrimination in local communities, including risk of job loss, homelessness, compromised medical care and the likelihood of imprisonment.
For those of same sex attraction in Uganda there is no sanctuary left to be found, there is no place to have an honest conversation, there is no capacity for them to be themselves before God, not even in the church of God.
Last year this synod recognized the profound importance of what the church does and says in the space. We agreed that the harm of LGBTQIA+ persons was intolerable, and in our discussions we heard that the highest rates of suicidailty in Australia continue to occur within the LGBTQIA population, a risk further elevated for those engaged in religion – we have to take responsibility for that.
For the sake of those in Uganda, for the sake of LGBTQIA+ loved ones among us and around us, for anyone struggling with their own identity and for our communities who notice what the Anglican church says, and stands for – and when we fall silent – we have to tell a better story than this.
I echo the call of the Very Rev’d Peter Catt and the Archbishop of Canterbury to be very clear and united in our rejection of violence against our cherished LGBTQIA+ sisters and brothers.
The Very Rev’d Dr Peter Catt, moving, The Rev’d Deborah Bird , seconding, passed by Synod.
That this Synod;
a. The Anglican Church in Uganda actively supported the passing of the Homosexuality Act which legislates for penalties that include life imprisonment and death;
b. That the Archbishop of Canterbury, in a statement issued on 9th June 20231:
i. reaffirmed the Anglican Communion’s Commitment to honouring the dignity of every human;
ii. stated that the criminalisation of homosexuality is not consistent with honouring that dignity;
iii. called on the Anglican Church in Uganda ‘to reconsider their support for [the] legislation and reject the criminalisation of LGBTQ people’;
iv. called on ‘the leadership of GAFCON and Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA), to make explicitly and publicly clear that the criminalisation of LGBTQ people is something that no Anglican province can support’;
c. In 2022 The General Synod of the Anglican church of Australia issued an apology to LGBTIQA+ people for past treatment of them; and
d. That this Synod, at its session in 2022, initiated a process to prepare its own apology to LGBTIQA+ people,
2. Affirms and echoes The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Statement of 9th June 2023 and the calls to the church in Uganda, GAFCON and GSFA it contains.
3. Calls on the Primate of The Anglican Church of Australia, The Bishops of the Anglican Church of Australia, and Diocesan Synods to publicly affirm their support for the Archbishop Canterbury and to publicly affirm and echo his statement of 9th June 2023.
4. Requests The Bishop Administrator to convey the text of this motion to the Primate of The Anglican Church of Australia, The Bishops of the Anglican Church of Australia, and Diocesan Registrars.
Notes
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