Archbishop tells church to face sexual revolution

THE Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, has warned the Church of England that it had to face up to a “revolution” in attitudes to homosexuality.

In his most widely anticipated address since taking over the leadership of the church in February, Welby insisted that it was now “absurd and impossible” to ignore an “overwhelming” change in social attitudes.

Although insisting that he had no immediate plans to change policy on issues such as gay marriage, he announced a major campaign to curb anti-gay bullying in the Church of England’s more than 5 000 schools.

He is understood to have approached the gay activist movement Stonewall, which led the campaign in favour of gay marriage, to invite it into church schools to teach up to a million children about homosexuality.

“We may or may not like it, but we must accept that there is a revolution in the area of sexuality,” he said.

His comments, signalling a dramatic change in tone from the established church, came in his first address as archbishop to the church’s general synod, which is meeting in York as it attempts to find a new solution to the fiasco over women bishops.

He said that Britain, like other countries, was living through a “time of revolutions” affecting the economic and political sphere and social attitudes. He acknowledged a “radical” decline in religious affiliation, but insisted that the church could benefit and even begin to grow again if it was willing to “respond radically and imaginatively” to a changing world.

Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, said: “Of course we will always help an education provider in helping to tackle homophobic bullying in schools.

“But the cynic would be tempted to think perhaps that the archbishop is trying to distract attention from his failure to engage gay people when they requested it over the issue of marriage.”