New bishop at odds with boss over gays

AUSTRALIA'S first woman bishop didn't take long to find herself at odds with her boss, the primate of the Anglican church.

On her first day in her new role as Assistant Bishop of Perth, Kay Goldsworthy was asked whether women had shared the same experiences as homosexuals in their battle for recognition. She was also asked if she would like to see homosexuals represented in the Anglican clergy.

"I think these are two different matters,'' she replied. "We are, as an Anglican church, at the moment engaged in a long process of listening carefully and attentively to the experience of homosexual Christian people, and that's where we're up to. "We're searching for the heart of God and the mind of Christ.''

Shortly after, the Australian Anglican primate, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, was asked his own views on the same issue. Dr Aspinall said he believed the homosexual issue would need to be dealt with in "the same kind of way'' as the ordination of women.

"It is a set of issues that will need to be dealt with in the same kind of way as the ordination of women questions has,'' he said. "It requires long-term deep study of the scriptures, international theological reflection and a lot of prayer and talking with each other.

"Questions of human sexuality run very deep in peoples' lives and sometime when they're raised there's a lot of kind of personal angst associated with it and it's not easy to get a clear objective discussion about the issues involved. "

So it will take time and will require a lot of patience.''

[Seriously, how does SHE not get it?]