From Canon Jeremy Pemberton
Sir, — The Secretary-General of the General Synod, William Fittall, may think he is being straightforward in his response to the controversy about the advertisement for the Archbishops’ Council Director of Communications (Letters, 8 July). He says: “Staff are appointed to senior positions in the national institutions of the Church of England by fair and competitive processes.
“They have to be able to show that they can serve it in all its diversity and operate its equal-opportunities policies. Suggestions that appointments are made in pursuit of a particular cultural or partisan agenda are completely unfounded.”
The advertisement itself makes reference to the sections of the Act which allow not simply for the appointment of a practising Christian to a particular representative post, but also to discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual (LGBT) candidates.
He supports a notion of distinguishing between gay orientation and gay activity, which, even if people submit to it, is still shown to be discriminatory — as bishops now have a moratorium in place on the appointment of any gay candidate, celibate or otherwise, to an episcopal appointment.
The Church of England is a very long way from being a diverse and equal-opportunities employer when it comes to LGBT clergy and those in senior appointments. It is embarrassing of Mr Fittall to pretend otherwise; hardly anyone outside the Church believes him.
The shame of it is that the law permits this kind of discrimination, and so the significant minority of clergy who are LGBT have to decide how they are to play a system that could and sometimes does discriminate against them ruthlessly.
JEREMY PEMBERTON
Department of Pastoral and Spiritual Care (Chaplaincy and Bereavement Services)
Lincoln County Hospital
Greetwell Road, Lincoln LN2 5QY