In a recent interview with The Times Magazine, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, pledged his personal support for gay bishops but said they must remain celibate.
“There’s no problem about a gay person who’s a bishop. It’s about the fact that there are traditionally, historically, standards that the clergy are expected to observe,” he stated.
When questioned what was wrong with a gay bishop being in a long-term comitted relationship with one partner, the spiritual leader of Anglicans throughout the globe said that the scriptural and traditional approach “doesn’t give much ground for being positive about it.”
Williams confessed that there was not clear agreement on this complex issue, saying that the Church “doesn’t quite know what to make of it,” and agreed that debating it could cause problems for homosexuals living in countries where there is vehement opposition to homosexuality.
The Archbishop also pleaded with liberal and traditional Anglicans to stay united and not split in spite of the strong disagreements raging in the church over issues like this.