An open letter about Western values from David L. Edwards to the bishops of the Global South

Dear Archbishops

Seventeen of your signatures were attached to a rebuke from the Global South (News, page 3). In offering this tiny contribution to the dialogue that is vitally needed although not yet witnessed, I don’t want to discuss the civil registration of single-sex partnerships, except in two sentences.

You say that such partnerships illustrate "the severing of the grace of Christ from his moral commandments", but you cannot quote a single reference to this issue in the Gospels. You complain that the Church of England ought to have sought exemption from this Act, but you ignore the principle that in our democracy a state may provide legal facilities if these accord with public opinion, but will leave continuing questions of conscience to personal decisions, after listening to advice from any source that a citizen may choose.

Nor do I concentrate on your completely unprovoked attack on the integrity of the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is a Bible-based and Catholic-minded theologian, whose view of homosexuality has been influenced by the modern knowledge that this unalterable condition is natural for some. But he does not insist on that opinion now, when he has accepted the burden of pastoral leadership of a Communion most of whose members do not share it.

That is an honourable position, to be expected both from a mind that is more fairly accused of being so well-informed and so honest as to be unclear, and from a soul dedicated to humble service in response to the needs and invitations of others.

But the example of insensitivity or ignorance that I find most offensive is your description of Europe as a "spiritual desert".

Of course, Europe and its Churches have massive problems, as is surely true about your own situations. But please note that these are discussed freely, frequently, and expertly, to an extent not matched in any other region of our troubled world. Please also note how many nations and individuals seek admission to the European Union, despite the criticisms of it that fill Europe’s own media every day.

Yet if we turn open eyes towards the realities, we do not observe a spiritual Sahara. Evidence abounds that there is a widespread interest in "spirituality" as more than materialism, and in "morality" as more than selfishness. This should not astonish us: it shows only that Europeans are as human as your own people. But some facts are new, and to some degree special to Europe.

Although no one likes to be taxed, most voters now agree that almost half of a nation’s earned (and often toughly earned) income should now be handed over for the welfare of the less privileged — the young, the old, the sick, the unemployed, and the unskilled — and for other good causes: poverty-stricken nations, nature in danger, and subsidy-hungry culture. Anyone could name causes that deserve more support, but all this seems to be in harmony with the caring, healing, and enriching ministry of Jesus. So why aren’t you more generous about it?

Although most Europeans are still patriots, this place — which used to be plagued by nationalism and militarism — is now a multicultural continent, largely without internal frontiers, and without any taste for war, in Iraq or anywhere else. You would rightly condemn the imperialism that lingers in racism (but, please, that is not an exclusively white evil) — but why do you fail to take account of this dramatically rapid transformation of Europe’s character for the better?

You are men in positions of leadership, but you should also appreciate the liberation of women in contemporary Europe as part of the acknowledgement of human rights. The admission of women to the ordained ministry is not yet complete, but it is already a key example of the release of the God-given talents of one half of humankind.

The recognition of rights for the traditionally marginalised of both genders, now firm in Europe-wide and national laws and courts of justice, can be seen as a reflection of the attitude that Jesus took to women and to the poor, in the context of the dawning of the Kingdom of God. Should you not applaud?

You are right to say that progress in society is not enough if there are no standards in private life, particularly in sexual behaviour. But the reality is a search for new (not necessarily inferior) standards, demanded by the new freedom and the new knowledge. Europeans are now free to use artificial contraception or fertilisation, new drugs, new media, and new styles of dress and courtesy. But it does not follow that people now have no knowledge of the difference between right and wrong. Watch any TV soap opera, or any argument between children or adults.

The big difference is not that Europeans have ceased to have consciences or souls. It is that they have a more sophisticated awareness of their bodies, with their instincts to explore and compete (look at any sport), and also to express love and to build co-operation in some way that involves sexuality. So Europe is embarked on the discovery of a new morality, as well as a new unity. For example, in Europe, marriage has become a union of equals, attracted and held together by love.

That does not make it a cesspit or a barren desert. It is a laboratory, as the desert was in the time of Moses. Some of its experiments go tragically wrong, and then it needs to repent. But don’t we all? You have consciences like us Europeans. Do they never make you uneasy like us?

The Very Revd Dr David L. Edwards is a former Provost of Southwark.