Church art 'holds key to gay tolerance'
by
Stephen Bates
Church art 'holds key to gay tolerance'
by
Stephen Bates
Church art 'holds key to gay tolerance'
Stephen Bates, religious affairs correspondent
Wednesday August 08 2001
The Guardian
Same sex relationships should be treated in the manner old church memorials
suggest, says historian
Evidence that churches in Britain sanctioned same sex relationships for as
long as 500 years has been presented to the Roman Catholic Church.
The claim, at a time when both the Catholic and Church of England
hierarchies are wrestling with how to come to terms with gay partnerships, is
likely to test their insistence that such relationships cannot be countenanced.
The study, by a British historian, suggests that the churches look at
memorials dating from the 14th to the 19th centuries, commemorating passionate
friendships. Often the partners were buried together.
The disclosure comes as the Right Reverend John Crowley, Catholic bishop
of Middlesbrough, is investigated by the Vatican after he was ordered not to
celebrate mass in commemoration of a 25 year partnership between Julian
Filochowski, the director of the Cafod aid agency, and Martin Prendergast, former
director of the Catholic Aids Link charity.
Minutes before the service in June, Bishop Crowley was ordered to step
down during a telephone call from Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, head of
the church in England and Wales.
But the evidence suggests that such ceremonies were commonly allowed in
past centuries with services outside the church door followed by holy communion
inside.
Even Cardinal John Henry Newman, one of English Catholicism's most
revered figures from the 19th century, insisted that he be buried with his closest
friend.
Newman wrote after the death of Ambrose St John in 1875: "I have ever
thought no bereavement was equal to that of a husband's or a wife's, but I feel it
difficult to believe that any can be greater, or any one's sorrow greater, than
mine."
Alan Bray, an ecclesiastical historian and research fellow at Birkbeck
College, London, has supplied copies of his findings to Cardinal Desmond
Connell, archbishop of Dublin, and senior clergy in his diocese - at the cardinal's
request - after giving a talk at Newman House, Dublin, a fortnight ago.
Extracts from the speech, published in the Catholic weekly The Tablet, are
being highlighted as a way from the past of resolving how the church should
regard same sex partnerships in future.
Although there is no indication that all those commemorated in memorials
were involved in sexual relationships, it is clear that some were and that the
churches turned a blind eye. Some of the memorials are striking in their intimacy.
In Merton College chapel in Oxford a brass dating from the 14th century
records the burial together of John Bloxham and John Whytton, showing the two
figures standing side by side holding hands in prayer.
Another, dating from 1684 in Christ'sCollege chapel, Cambridge, celebrates
the "connubium" or marriage of John Finch and Thomas Baines, illustrated by a
knotted cloth.
Nearby in Gonville and Caius college chapel a memorial of 1619
commemorates Thomas Legge and John Gostlin with a heart in flames uplifted by
two hands with a Latin inscription which translates as: "Love joined them living.
So may the earth join them in their burial. O Legge, Gostlin's heart you have still
with you."
Sir William Neville and Sir John Clanvowe, two knights who were buried in
the same tomb after dying at Constantinople in 1391.
They have a monument depicting their heraldic shields impaled as if they
were married, in the iconography of the time, the two helms, or helmets,
surmounting them placed close together in the stylised depiction of a kiss.
Even the 17th century bishop of Hereford, Herbert Croft, and the cathedral
dean, George Benson, were buried together within the communion rails of the
cathedral with the inscrip tion: "In life united. In death not divided."
Nor is it just male relationships. The chapel of St John the Baptist in
Westminster Abbey has the tomb of Mary Kendall dating from 1710 with an
inscription recording: "That close Union and Friendship, In which she lived, with
the Lady Catharine Jones; And in testimony of which she desir'd That even their
Ashes, after Death, Might not be divided."
The recently discovered diary of Anne Lister, mistress of Shibden Hall,
Yorkshire - who had a lesbian relationship with Ann Walker - describes how they
had their "marriage" solemnised at Holy Trinity church in Goodramgate, York, in
1834.
Mr Bray, author of Homosexuality in Renaissance England, said: "The sexual
potential of a relationship, which was always a possibility, was clearly not in itself
a bar to eucharistic practice.
"The church was taking cognisance of friendship and although its
disciplines were the same it was more willing to take a risk.
"I see the church's attitude then as a positive response that was well
received."
Special report: religion in the UK
Stephen Bates, religious affairs correspondent
Wednesday August 08 2001
The Guardian
Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited
http://www.guardian.co.uk
Edited
and
teologie@bigfoot.com
compiled
by
Rev.
Gary
Leonard
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