Over the last two weeks, the Anglican Communion held its once-a-decade Lambeth Conference, where bishops from across the globe meet to pass resolutions and decide “the mind of the communion” on current issues.
Welby, the head of the Church of England and symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, convenes the conference.
He has faced a firestorm of criticism for one specific resolution, or “call”, which asked bishops to reaffirm the notorious Lambeth Resolution 1.10, passed in 1998 when bishops rejected “homosexual practice as incompatible with scripture”.
Welby later U-turned on the call, but later released a letter “to affirm that the validity of the resolution passed at the Lambeth Conference 1998 1.10 is not in doubt and that whole resolution is still in existence”.
In her letter, Toksvig wrote: “I know we’ve never met and I probably should call you ‘Your Grace or ‘Your Eminence’ or something, but I wish we were friends.
“If we were I’d call you and say, ‘Justin, Justin, what are you doing?’ We’d have a chat and maybe I could persuade you that you have made a horrible mistake. It’s what friends do for each other.”
FAO The Archbishop of Canterbury pic.twitter.com/UYyVWUsdyB
— Sandi Toksvig (@sanditoksvig) August 3, 2022
Sandi Toksvig appealed to Archbishop Justin Welby, begging him to make young LGBTQ+ people feel ‘loved’
Sandi Toksvig described the “main takeaway” of the Lambeth Conference as being “that gay sex is a sin”.
“It was a sin in 1998 and you just wanted to make clear in 2022 that no one in your finely frocked gang has moved on from that,” she continued.
Toksvig attempted to appeal to Welby, citing heartbreaking statistics on the likelihood of self-harm and suicide ideation among young LGBTQ+ people, asking: “Do you know why? For many it’s because they don’t feel loved and love, Justin, is supposed to be at the core of what you do. It’s like top of the job description.”
The lesbian comedian told Welby that she had received many death threats throughout her career, and that “each and every one of those threats has come from an evangelical Christian”.
As a “smart guy”, Toksvig said she expected Welby to understand that the Bible was always up to “extremely fallible interpretation”, and pointed out that Jesus never even mentioned LGBTQ+ people.
Sandi Toksvig continued: “Oh Justin, how can you be so stuck? Are you saying that the Bible teaches us that none of us can ever learn from experience? That we can never grow and gain a deeper understanding of human behaviour than we had 2,000 years ago when you could still feel a crowd with two loaves and a handful of fish?
“Jesus doesn’t mentions sexuality at all. It clearly wasn’t a big deal for him. The only time I think he had anything like a conference was when he gathered 5,000 people for the Sermon on the Mount.
“That was when he talked about good trees bearing good fruit and bad trees bearing bad fruit. That’s the sort of message that would be great from you. Really simple. Just be a good person. That’s it.
“Jesus never even mentioned whether the tree was bent or not.”
Coincidentally, Toksvig said that she and her wife were attending a Church of England church on Saturday (6 August) to host a concert in aid of Ukrainian refugees.
Sandi Toksvig finished her letter: “After the concert I shall leave the church and never set foot in an Anglican building again. I’ll come back when you decide to welcome all of ‘God’s children’ on equal footing.
“Call me, Justin. Let’s have coffee. Let me talk you round. You never know, I might even forgive you.”