In his first lengthy sermon since the furore broke over his appointment as suffragan Bishop of Reading last year, Canon John said that evangelicals who cited Scripture to oppose homosexuality were similar to those who used the Bible to justify slavery.

“The ability of the Church to ignore the deeper implications of its own scriptures is horribly plain throughout history,” he wrote in a sermon note published on the Inclusive Church Network website.

“Remember it took 18 centuries for Christians to realise that slavery is against the Gospel. The Church will one day look back on the issues that divide us today and find it incredible that it once thought it right and ‘scriptural’ to treat women and other minorities as it does now.”

Canon John stood aside from taking up the post of Bishop of Reading after he admitted that he had a 27-year relationship with another man, although he is celibate.

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