AU: Bishop defends gay priest appointment

The Anglican Bishop of Gippsland has defended his decision to appoint an openly gay priest to a local parish, saying he has acted appropriately
27 February, 2012
By ABC Gippsland

Bishop John McIntyre, says his decision to appoint Reverend David Head, who formerly held a position within a Melbourne parish, to the parish of Heyfield is in line with the policy of his diocese.

Bishop McIntyre's decision was criticised by a group called the Anglican Church League who, according to reports, had claimed that the appointment was in conflict with a resolution made at the Anglican Bishop's 1998 Lambeth Conference.

But Bishop McIntyre says the recommendation from that conference pertained particularly to the ordination of gay priests.

"If they think that I have acted against the Lambeth resolution, they need to think again, because I didn't actually ordain this man. He was ordained over 30 years ago in the diocese of Melbourne," Bishop McIntyre said.

"For the last nearly ten years, David has been a priest in a parish in the diocese of Melbourne where, when he was inducted into that parish the bishop of the day welcomed not only him, but his partner Mark into the life of the parish and the people of that parish were well aware that David was in that relationship, living in the vicarage of that parish.

"I see myself simply as having appointed to a position in this diocese a person who was, to use the formal language, 'a priest in good standing in his previous diocese.' To that extent I don't see myself as having acted against either the Lambeth statement, nor do I see myself as having acted against a resolution of the general synod of our national church here in Australia."

He said the Gippsland diocese had a policy of welcoming gay and lesbian people and he himself had declared that policy in a speech to his synod last year. the rest