Bishops Debate Ordination of Gay Clergy

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In what promises to be the most explosive debate since the ordination of women priests, the Church of England General Synod will today wrestle for the first time in 10 years with the question of its attitude towards homosexual clergy.

The issue will expose bitter divisions between the Church's liberal and evangelical wings. The demands of the gay lobby have been fuelled by a survey released yesterday which alleged that many Anglican bishops flout their own ban on homosexual priests.

The prospect of agonising in the public gaze about this most difficult of theological dilemmas is not one that senior Church leaders relish. But the debate has been forced upon them by …