The Very Reverend Colin Slee, who died last year (Photo: AP)
It is interesting, if unsurprising, to hear that the Church of England is agonising over gay bishops again. The issue had gone quiet following my revelation last year that Jeffrey John was in contention for the post of Bishop of Southwark.
But the leaked memo from Colin Slee shows that rather than going away, it has merely simmered under the surface, causing anguish and pain, writes Jonathan Wynne-Jones in The Telegraph.
Not least to the former dean of Southwark and to his family, who suggest his “hurt and anger were contributory to the cancer from which he died”. While the impact of the ordeal on his health is impossible to calculate, there is no doubting how upset he was by the rejection of John and Nick Holtam, and then to be accused of leaking the story to me. Which he didn’t, for the record.
A normally ebullient, convivial figure, he cut a chastened and dejected figure at last year’s General Synod, complaining to me that he was finding the atmosphere intolerable. It is not difficult to understand why Rowan Williams was upset that the story had leaked out, but there was great hypocrisy from some of those most upset by the disclosure, with one senior lay evangelical protesting just a little too much.
The Archbishop will be disappointed that the row has surfaced once more as his handling of the gay clergy issue has plagued his time in office ever since he asked Jeffrey John, his old friend, to withdraw from becoming Bishop of Reading.
Full article - Telegraph Blogs
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