The full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Christians is the most serious threat to the life of the Communion says Kenneth Kearon

Canon Kenneth Kearon met the Episcopal Church’s Executive Council on Friday and told them that in removing Episcopal Church members from some Anglican Communion ecumenical dialogues “the aim has not been to get at the Episcopal Church, but to find room for others to remain as well as enabling as full a participation as possible for the Episcopal Church within the communion.”

He said the church ought to have known that it would face sanctions when Mary Glasspool was ordained as the church’s second openly gay, partnered bishop. Asked about incursions by other provinces of the Communion he said such ongoing breaches of the moratorium on incursions do not rise to the same level of departure from the faith and order of the Communion as does the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Christians.

There you have it. We LGBT people are the problem that needs to be dealt with. With my brothers and sisters in North America, Africa, South America and Asia, I am the problem. My sexuality is the element that needs to be contained and suppressed by the Communion because I threaten its life.

Dr Rowan Williams, Canon Kenneth Kearon and conservative theologians, commentators and pressure groups are now united in having identified the single problem causing distress to the Communion and have focussed the problem on the Episcopal Church, it’s actions, theology and praxis. It’s an easy solution to pin all the blame on the actions of the Episcopal Church in consecrating two bishops who are in committed relationships with same-sex partners.

I want to broaden the scenario. It’s too easy to narrow the focus of blame. Historically, the failure started following the Lambeth Conference of 1978 when no action was taken on Resolution 10 and was repeated in 1988 when no action followed the passing of Resolution 64. It is the failure of the Communion to engage with the issue of homosexuality that is the precursor of the present problems.

My self-interest in wanting to survive as a gay Christian in a church that is becoming increasingly hostile to my presence holds that the guilt and responsibility for where we are now and the dynamics in relation to the Episcopal Church can be laid elsewhere. Why didn’t the Communion respond in 1987 and 1988? Were the powers-that-be too afraid to deal with homosexuality?

Much, much more critically, why was nothing done in the 7 years following Lambeth 1998 and the passing of Resolution 1.10? No Communion-wide response was started until Kenneth Kearon was in post as Secretary General. Those 7 years were critical and left a vacuum in which conservatives pursued a campaign against gays in the church and TEC elected Gene Robinson.

Blaming the Episcopal Church for breaking the rules now ignores, to my great distress, the abhorrent attitudes and behaviour towards LGBT people manifest in many Anglican Provinces and leaders. It is this that really outrages and incenses me and why I think the Communion is getting the debate so horribly wrong. Attention is focussed on rule-breaking by TEC but fails to hold Provinces, church leaders, bishops and primates to account for the bigotry and intolerance of LGBT people they express in the name of Christianity.

So we continue down the fateful path outlined by the Windsor Report and the Anglican Covenant, driven by conservative forces on the ground of upholding the plain meaning of the Bible, the unchallengeable historic teaching of the church and the unexamined prejudices of Christianity and human societies against LGBT people, sacrificing LGBT lives in the process.

In the shadow of the Anglican obsession with homosexuality are tens of thousands of people, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, who live as I lived in the 60s and 70s, in the closet, in hiding from parents and families, friends and peer groups, work colleagues, congregations and priests, in fear and sometimes with self-loathing. I talk with people across the globe every day who sometimes patiently, sometimes in an agonised outpouring of anguish, describe their lives to me.

And I know, calming myself down, that Continuing Indaba is being progressed, laying the foundations for a process of education through shared experience that will eventually lead to change.

But that does not exempt church leaders now from the charge of being so obsessed with this issue, with tradition and orthodox teaching, with judging and condemning a church which openly ordains partnered gay men and lesbians and blesses loving same-sex relationships, with imposing sanctions, that they lose sight of the sinful behaviour of the church in colluding with violence, oppression and injustice against an innocent, vulnerable minority. We are an easy target for bigots.

I know I am one of the few voices crying in a wilderness but what is happening in the Communion is an outrage. Technically, the Episcopal Church has broken specific rules in contravention of the moratoria. I can see that it’s easy to issue a guilty charge as the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Secretary General have done. I can see where this is leading and I’m frightened, not only for the safety of LGBT people but for the future of Christ-like witness in our Communion.

It’s much easier to issue sanctions against TEC than it is against Provinces who have transgressed the moratoria on boundary crossing. It’s not quite so easy to gather the evidence. It’s much easier to blame TEC than to challenge the behaviour of Nicholas Okoh, the Primate of Nigeria, who is waging a fight against homosexuality and called for Nigeria to withdraw from the UN because of its support for homosexuality. Isn’t this a contravention of the Windsor Report? But not of the three moratoria, so not actionable in the way consecrating a lesbian or gay bishop is.

Homosexuality has been made the defining issue by conservatives, not women priests or bishops, not polygamy, divorce or abortion, not abusive behaviour, power or corruption, not the survival of our planet, but the love people of the same sex have for each other, deemed by the majority in our Communion to be deviant and bringing the church into disrepute.

We are not the most serious threat to the life of the Communion, we are not in any way a threat but a gift and blessing.

A huge gulf is opening in England between the attitude of the general population to gay partnerships and the Church of England

My partner and I are planning to contract our Civil Partnership in October (dependent on approval from the Home Office). Our focus will not be the legal ceremony in the registry office but a service of holy communion in church using material from Jim Cotter’s The Service of my Love. We met our Rector this week to talk about planning the service. He is totally positive about our desire to commit ourselves to each other in church in the presence of God and our friends.

Similar services have been taking place in St Luke’s Charlton in South London for over 15 years with the full approval of the PCC. Other services have taken place up and down the country in village halls, marquees, secular venues – and in churches. Guests at Christian ceremonies in secular venues fail to understand why they can’t be held in church. Because church rules forbid it is not a satisfactory answer for the couple’s family and friends.

A huge gulf is opening in this country between the attitude of the general population to gay partnerships and the official position of the Church of England. The church is driven by a conservative minority demanding that it conforms to Issues in Human Sexuality, Lambeth 1.10, the House of Bishops Statement and the Windsor Report (conformity being selective).

The gulf is not simply an inability to accept C of E teaching about the place of LGBT people in the church but about people’s spiritual experience and their vision of God. I’ll return to this in a later blog. Today I want to focus on the outworking of the Windsor Report.

Since the Episcopal Church consecrated Mary Glasspool, a partnered lesbian, there has been a storm of reaction from conservatives and counter-reactions from pro-LGBT networks. The Archbishop of Canterbury issued his Pentecost letter, the Presiding Bishop responded, the General Secretary laid out the next steps. Others have issued thoughtful responses, Giles Goddard for Inclusive Church sending open letters to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Presiding Bishop and Andrew Goddard writing an analysis for Fulcrum.

In the past, I would have engaged critically with the contributions posted by others and with Andrew’s analysis of the meaning and implications of the Archbishop’s letter. I’ve been struggling to write a blog for over a week, beginning but not completing several drafts, trying to express truthfully my response to the various published reactions.

I’m with the people who express disbelief at what the Archbishop of Canterbury is proposing and despair at the success with which conservative forces are destroying the credibility our church in the hearts and minds of English seekers after God. My despair increases when I read reports by George Conger and Anglican Curmudgeon that the Archbishop has conveyed to the Presiding Bishop a private request that she withdraw from her position on the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion and not attend the next Primates' Meeting in January 2011.

The majority of people I talk with are unaware of the developments taking place behind the scenes in our church and Communion. If they were aware, they are likely to be uncomprehending, despairing or angry. Despair and anger would increase if the reports that both Archbishops plan to table an amendment at General Synod in York to provide greater protection for those opposed to women bishops turn out to be true.

No innovation is the mantra of conservatives opposed to changes in church teaching and practice in the ordination of women bishops (and still, for many, priests) and the full inclusion of LGBT people in church life and ministry. In England, this stance is proving disastrous for people’s perception of the Church of England which they perceive as prejudiced, homophobic, reactionary, and out of touch with the life and teaching of Jesus revealed in the Gospels.

That’s the greatest tragedy – that the position of the church is now radically at odds with most people’s experience of God and is a barrier to discipleship and spirituality. More about God later!

On the wider front of Anglican Communion policy, the majority of people I talk with are at one with the Episcopal Church in wanting to challenge injustice, work for change and extend love and welcome to all God’s children. Attitudes held by many key leaders and opinion formers in the Communion towards LGBT people are viewed as barbaric. People do not distinguish between the death penalty for lesbian and gay people proposed in the Ugandan legislation, the proposed ant-gay marriage bill in Nigeria, the condemnation of TEC for having elected partnered openly lesbian and gay bishops and the murders of gay men in the UK.

The mind of the church towards the place of LGBT people in the Anglican Communion, detailed in the Windsor report, is being interpreted and put into effect selectively by the Archbishop of Canterbury to maintain unity in the Communion. This is proving to be a disastrous policy for the mission and spiritual and pastoral ministry of the Church of England. LGBT Anglicans are reaching a level of despair at the direction in which our church is being taken. With those enlightened enough to support us, we know what the C of E seems unable to acknowledge fully – that we too have been created in the image of God.

Meanwhile, planning for the celebration of our Civil Partnership in Devizes continues. Invitations will be sent out when we have the go-ahead from the UK Border Agency. We hope many will come and celebrate with us, rejoicing in our love for each other within the love of God. The disconnect between our intimate plans for celebrating our relationship and the machinations going on in the Communion is huge. It won’t be resolved for me until LGBT people are not just made safe across the world but welcomed warmly and lovingly by every Christian community.

Thabo Makgoba and Katharine Jefferts Schori model the possibility of creative dialogue at the USPG Conference

The USPG Conference has provided a remarkable opportunity to hear Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Archbishop Thabo Makgoba deliver the two keynote addresses and to hear them interact as members of the discussion panel on Wednesday evening.

Bishop Katherine used her address to outline an ethos for mission and then to describe the history and polity of the Episcopal Church in some detail. In response to a question from me, she outlined how the church’s response to slavery 200 years ago laid the foundations of a commitment to justice and equality in the church which has led to the development over 50 years of a radically inclusive policy towards LGBT people.

Archbishop Thabo used his address to talk in detail about the Church of Southeran Africa, the Anglican Communion and the effect of the Episcopal Church’s polity. Andrew commented on Thinking Anglicans, Archbishop Thabo is being what Archbishop Rowan is trying (and failing) to be - an honest broker dedicated to maintaining the unity of the Communion as far as possible and wasn’t afraid to talk directly to Presiding Bishop Katharine in his address.

The Primate of Brazil, the Most Revd Mauricio Andrade and the Rt Revd Dr Jo Seoka are also here together with participants from Ghana, Zimbabwe, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

If there are Global South Primates ruthlessly determined to split the Communion over the issue of human sexuality, then nothing is going to divert them from their chosen path. But despite their continued aggressive rhetoric and the poison spewed by Stand Firm and VirtueOnline in the USA, the split still hasn’t occurred. Having listened to Archbishop Thabo in a 90 minute interest group this morning and asked him detailed questions, I have no doubt that he has the capacity to engage with other Global South Primates and remind them that they are not the sole representatives of Global South attitudes.

The Province of Southern Africa continues to be divided in its attitude to LGBT people, but Archbishop Thabo described how the church is engaging with difference in a creative and constructive way. The Province is setting a model example not only for the rest of Africa but for the whole Communion. There is clearly more openness and honesty and respect for difference in South Africa than in the Church of England.

Primate Katherine and Archbishop Thabo have restored my confidence in the possibility of the Communion weathering the current storm and emerging with changing attitudes inspired with a more radical commitment to the Christian gospel.

What the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Secretary General should really be doing

The old, patriarchal paradigm of power, authority and control continues to exert its influence over some leaders of the Anglican Communion as they respond to the presence of LGBT people and the campaign waged by the self-proclaimed majority against our full inclusion.

In his Pentecost letter the Archbishop of Canterbury proposes that members of provinces that are in breach of the three moratoria requested by the Instruments of the Communion should no longer participate in the formal ecumenical dialogues in which the Anglican Communion is engaged. The Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Canon Kenneth Kearon, has written selectively to the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church of Canada and to Greg Venables of the Southern Cone.

The Rt Rev Martyn Minns is among those who might have been expected to be sent a letter but hasn’t. He told the Living Church that the primates, “never agreed that there’s a moral equivalence between what they see as an attempt to change the Anglican Communion’s teaching and a provision for temporary pastoral care.”

Moral inequality is the name of the game for the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Secretary General. They have been selective in their exclusions. They demonstrate their inability to respond with Christian love, courage, wisdom and compassion to the campaign being fought by adherents of the old paradigm who want to marginalise at best and dehumanise at worst LGBT people.

What should the Archbishop and Secretary General be doing?
They should witness to the violence perpetrated against LGBT people. The anti-homosexuality Bills in Nigeria and Uganda are actively supported by Christians. Millions of LGBT Africans live in fear, intimidated by extreme rhetoric, vilified and attacked. In England, gay men continue to be murdered in homophobic attacks.

What should they be doing?
They should be opposing Anglican leaders and forces in the Communion which claim to respect LGBT people whilst advocating actions and doctrines which diminish us and reinforce prejudice and hatred against us. They should denounce every homophobic statement made by Anglican Primates, bishops, leaders and teachers, at the risk of being accused of colonialism.

What should they be doing?
They should be seeking to change the mind of the Communion expressed in the clauses of Lambeth 1.10 which fail to grant full respect, dignity and equality to LGBT people, to our loving, faithful relationships and our welcome to every level of ministry in the church.

What should they be doing?
They should be faithful to their own Christian integrity, challenging the use of passages from the Bible to maintain prejudice against LGBT people. The Archbishop and the Secretary General are at heart “revisionists” (the pejorative term used to demean pro-LGBT campaigners). They should revise all church teaching which scapegoats LGBT people and corrupts the gospel which teaches the goodness and glory of humanity as sexual beings created in love by God.

What should they be doing?
They should respect The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada in their commitment to model justice and love for all people who follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. They should come out of their closets and state openly that the Church of England ordains, often knowingly, partnered LGBT people. Many bishops actively encourage clergy to contract a Civil Partnership and by implication, support the blessing of lesbian and gay relationships.

What should they be doing?
They should be supporting the eradication of homophobia and prejudice against LGBT people in the Anglican Communion instead of supporting punitive sanctions and colluding with those who advocate prejudice. If this is to be the effect of the Anglican Covenant, then the Covenant will be a further instrument of prejudice and intolerance and Changing Attitude says NO to the Covenant.

This morning I’m driving to Swanwick to take part in the 2010 USPG conference ‘Witnessing to Christ Today”. The principal speakers are the Most Revd Katherine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and the Most Revd Thabo Makgoba, Archbishop of Cape Town. I expect to hear two people who speak truthfully from their own hearts and proclaim a gospel of justice and love in the name of Jesus Christ, a gospel which fully includes, respects and protects lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Colin Coward
Director of Changing Attitude England

General Synod members plan to flout ruling that ACNA clergy cannot exercise ministry in the UK

Christianity Today reports that so-called ‘orthodox’ Anglicans in North America are inviting priests in the Church of England to make a show of solidarity by taking part in a clergy exchange (or swap as they charmingly describe it). The exchange is being proposed following the consecration of Bishop Mary Glasspool last Saturday.

The Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) has said the clergy exchange would be an opportunity for Church of England parishes and clergy to express their solidarity and friendship with ACNA churches. Participating clergy will serve the pulpit for a period of three to four weeks in January and July or August next year. This was expressly forbidden in a motion passed by General Synod last February.

Synod debated Lorna Ashwoth’s motion expressing the wish to be in communion with ACNA. An amendment was rejected that expressed "our desire that in the interim, the orders of ACNA clergy be recognised and accepted by the Archbishops subject to their satisfaction as to such clergy being of good standing, enabling them to exercise their ordained ministry in this country, according to the Overseas and Other Clergy (Ministry and Ordination) Measure 1967”. The final text recognised the desire of those who have formed the Anglican Church in North America to remain within the Anglican family and invite the Archbishops to report further to the Synod in 2011.

The letter of invitation to Church of England clergy has been sent jointly by Paul Perkin, Chair of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans in the UK and Ireland and Secretary Chris Sugden. The letter says: “Institutionally the CofE seems to be sitting on the fence. The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that the consecration of Mary Glasspool in TEC is 'regrettable'; yet the CofE has not fully embraced ACNA. An important contribution at this stage will be for parishes and clergy to express solidarity and friendship with clergy and parishes in ACNA.”

Chris Sugden and Paul Perkin have been disloyal to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Church of England in their quest for an orthodoxy and tradition which is not Anglican. They are both members of General Synod.

Chris Sugden and Paul Perkin’s letter to C of E clergy invites them to disobey the rule which expressly does not allow ACNA clergy to exercise ministry in parishes in this country. Anglican Mainstream and ACNA want a free-for-all in the Anglican Communion, having advocated the crossing of Provincial boundaries for some years, and now telling priests to ignore the will of General Synod.

I happily ignore the will of General Synod as expressed in Tony Higton’s 1987 motion and of the House of Bishops as expressed in ‘Issues in Human Sexuality’ and the House of Bishops’ pastoral statement on civil partnerships, but I am not a member of General Synod.

Having it both ways

Love it or hate it (and some people really hate it: see the website Platitude of the Day http://www.platitudes.org.uk/platblog/index.php) Radio 4’s ‘Thought for the Day’ can send out its listeners pondering, fuming, or laughing on their way to work. One of its best-known contributors – along with Rabbi Blue, Clifford Longley, Mona Siddiqui, Anne Atkins, Indarjit Singh and John Bell – is Bishop Tom Butler, the recently retired Bishop of Southwark.

Yesterday morning Bishop Tom woke people up, as they crunched their muesli, sipped their juice or second cup of coffee, by offering a gay-friendly ‘thought’. What! a Church of England bishop saying that gays are OK, civil partnerships acceptable, and Mary Glasspool, newly consecrated bishop of the Episcopal Church, a godly woman? Well, yes, and why not? Bishop Tom has used ‘Thought for the Day’ this way before, as when he famously claimed that women and gays were not a problem for the Church, but a gift (from God).

His latest comments, which go further than anything he has previously said, seem less remarkable when one takes into account the fact that he is now retired and can speak as a private individual rather than as a member of the House of Bishops, to belong to which one must subscribe to the teaching on (homo)sexuality contained in the document Issues in Human Sexuality. Why this discussion paper should have been accorded so much authority has never been satisfactorily explained, but the Church of England is saddled with it until more people, including those in authority, and with the power to challenge it, begin to publicly question it.

Which brings us back to Bishop Tom, who, yesterday, informed the nation that, like the Home Secretary, he has changed his mind on homosexuality, just as, a few years ago, he, and a majority like him, changed their mind about the remarriage of divorcees in church. Now, in fact, this is very different from the line Bishop Tom has taken hitherto. Previously, when questioned about his, apparently affirming, views on gay people, he has said that it is not so much him that has changed but the Church which has become more conservative and intolerant on these issues. Yesterday, however, he admitted that he has, in fact, amended his views in the light of experiencing the lives of faithful and loving gay couples.

Although this sounds contradictory both things might be true. Historically, it is the case, that the Church of England, like the Anglican Communion, has been altered in recent years by an intolerant neo-conservatism. It is reflected in the websites that are currently demonising Bishop Tom, based on his latest ‘Thought for the Day,’ for conforming to the misguided ways of the modern world and deserting the unchanging certainties of the Faith, whereas, in fact, it is their judgemental attitudes that are the novelty compared to the patient listening of the long Anglican pastoral tradition.

So, yes, it is possible for Bishop Tom to ‘have it both ways’ – to declare that the Church has become more conservative (thereby making him appear somewhat ‘liberal’) on sexual ethics, and also that, in recent years, life has taught him that gay couples can be loving and faithful. Am I alone, though, in feeling disappointed that Bishop Tom’s change of heart did not make him more critical of Issues in Human Sexuality while he was in office as a diocesan? Or maybe it came along too late for him to challenge the crucial role of that document in preventing the full acceptance of LGBT people in the life of the Church.

IDAHO day event and a lesbian blessing in Kenya contrast the 14 year sentence given in Malawi

Revd Michael Kimindu, Changing Attitude’s contact in Kenya, took part in a gathering of sexual minorities at the National Museum, Nairobi where they assembled to mark the International Day Against Homophobia on May 17. He was given the opportunity to talk about what Other Sheep Ministries and the Metropolitan Community Church are doing to check religious-based homophobia and transphobia. On his left in the photo above is activist musician Kate Kamunde from Afra Kenya and Audrie Mbugua (right) from Transgender Kenya.

Michael based his talk on the contrast between John.3:16 and 17, love and not condemnation. He said that we advocate for acceptance and the full inclusion of LGBTI people of faith, and of their parents and friends in their respective faiths. He invited those present to MCC which is an inclusive church. At one point someone contributed in the manner of an African American Pentecostal enthusiast saying: preach, preacher, preach!

Scores of Kenya homosexuals celebrated the International Day Against Homophobia on Monday and demanded more recognition. They sung and danced and for the first time allowed media coverage of their function to fight stigma and victimisation.

“Ten years ago there was no public place that could have hosted such a function,” said Kenya Human Rights Commission director Muthoni Wanyeki, whose lobby organised the event. “Although the Committee of Experts did not allow same sex marriage in Kenya the Proposed Constitution would enable all Kenyans access health and are free from discrimination and violence. The basic rights are for all Kenyans including people from the gay community.” Ms Wanyeki, however, said despite the government allowing the gay community to meet, the battle against harassment of and violence against sexual minorities is still on.

Kate Kamunde said: ”Spaces are opening up to accommodate us which was not possible two years ago.” She regretted that government officials gave the function a wide birth despite being invited.

Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) commissioner Lawrence Mute condemned prejudice on grounds of their sexual orientation. “Let us ensure nobody is discriminated either in school, at work or even in the society especially because of who they are,” he told participants.

Dr Ben Sihanya, the dean of the School of Law at the University of Nairobi emphasised the need to focus on issues of sexual minorities in the country. “We are quick at criminalising issues that we do not understand,” he challenged homophobes, who harbour negative attitudes and feelings towards homosexuality.

Galck official David Kuria termed both religious homophobia and transphobia as ‘senseless violence,’ and called for a society that was more tolerant to the welfare and needs of LGBIT persons in the country.

I’ve just connected online with Dennis Nzioka, the religious relationship assistant at Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (Galck). He urged religious leaders to tolerate gay people. “We are born this way. We are created this way. We want to feel comfortable when we come to church. They should stop preaching discrimination against gay people. Just as I am proud to be African I am proud of being gay. There’s nothing wrong with what we are doing,” he said.

Mr Nzioka was happy that homosexuals could now be allowed to meet in the open and that his family also understands him. “If we had a family meeting, I usually went with my boyfriend but I am currently not dating,” he said, adding that there were already many gay marriages in Kenya “although we don’t expect licensing in near future".

Lesbians ask to be blessed

After Michael’s speech a member of the audience approached him and asked if he could bless her union with her partner there and then. He asked her to call the partner and they moved to a corner where Michael gave them some pre-marital counselling. They agreed to do bless the relationship the following evening at their house giving them time to compose themselves, buy rings and invite some friends.

Michael conducted the service on the 18th May at 8:30pm. It was attended by nine other women friends and one gay man. The couple are 20 and 25 years old. This was the first blessing he had conducted for lesbians and the second for a same sex couple having done one for two gay men last year.

Michael received a phone call while he was sending this e-mail. A woman called asking the location of his church so that she could come on Sunday. Michael comments that knowing how to respond to such calls is always tricky because you never the caller is genuine. He asks for prayers, hoping that God is in control.

Michael shows that it is possible to create safe spaces in African culture for a message of full inclusion to be preached and for lesbian and gay couples to affirm and bless their relationships. Reading Michael’s account, the scenario didn’t feel that different from the UK, where the blessing of relationships in church still has a certain clandestine quality and preaching and teaching about inclusivity in churches is still a minority activity.

The difference between Michael’s account of his activity in Kenya and the sentence of 14 years with hard labour given to Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga in Malawi is outrageous and shocking. I’ve been pondering all week what Changing Attitude might be able to contribute to the campaign to free them which Peter Tatchell is pursuing. We have only one recently made gay contact in Malawi.

One avenue which we can explore is the friendship I have with Bishop James Tengatenga of Southern Malawi who was elected last year in Jamaica as chair of the Anglican Consultative Council, and I will be drafting a letter to him.

Colin Coward