WE WANT TO EXPRESS OUR GRATITUDE TO DEAN SWANSON, THE STAFF AND
CONGREGATION OF CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL FOR THEIR GRACIOUS HOSPITALITY,
TO PETE STRINGER, SANDRA MERRITT AND THE MEMBERS OF THE CONVENTION
COMMITTEE FOR THEIR WORK IN ARRANGING THIS MEETING. AND TO THE
CATHEDRAL CHOIR AND MICHAEL VELTILNG, ORGANIST AND / CHOIRMASTER FOR
THEIR WONDERFUL MUSIC.

Bishop Allison was responding, in part, to a lecture I gave several
weeks ago at an Anglican Communion Institute conference in Charleston.
In general it seems that Bp. Allison is concerned that I am promoting a
kind of weak resistance to heresy in our church, because I have called
such resistance to be accountable to strict standards of humility,
order, and – as far as possible! – unity. This has led him to label my

St Augustine said that a community becomes a community when it is united in love of the same thing. But that love of the same thing can be lifegiving or deathdealing, depending on what it is that is loved. We can find ourselves agreeing in the love of something that eats away at the very roots of our humanity while we ignorantly suppose that it is good and godly.

Up to this point, I have taken for granted the validity of the initial part of my main thesis, namely that the condemnation of homosexual behavior in both Scripture and Tradition is “clear and consistent.” But given the importance of this point, I will now point to some of the overwhelming evidence that demonstrates the truth of this claim.