From the Telegraph:

An openly-homosexual cleric has been nominated to become a senior bishop, in a move that threatens to provoke a damaging split in the Church of England.

A confidential meeting, chaired by Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has approved Dr Jeffrey John, the Dean of St Albans, to be on the shortlist to be the next Bishop of Southwark.

He is understood to be the favoured candidate.

Dr John is a hugely divisive figure in the church after he was forced to stand down from becoming the Bishop of Reading in 2003 after it emerged he was in a homosexual, but celibate, relationship.

Promoting him to one of the most senior offices in the Church would trigger a civil war between liberals and conservatives and exacerbate existing divisions within the Anglican Communion.

Rowan Williams must know that making Dr. Jeffrey John a bishop will create similar havoc in the UK that Gene Robinson’s consecration as bishop did in the US; why is he allowing it to proceed?

Perhaps because Dr. John is in a “celibate relationship” – although it wasn’t always the case:

Canon John, a prominent gay rights advocate, had been in an active homosexual relationship but said he had been celibate for a number of years.

Part of the problem seems to me to be Dr. John’s motive in all this. He must know that his becoming a bishop will cause strife, but presumably thinks the strife is worth it for the sake of advancing what he sees as gay rights in the church.

The fact that he lives with his ex-lover and civil partner, does little to alleviate possible suspicions that he might loosen up a little on the celibacy aspect of the relationship occasionally. This has nothing to do with his being gay: the same suspicion would be present if he were a heterosexual living celibately with his girlfriend. Just because someone is celibate, it doesn’t mean they are beyond temptation – rather the reverse.

So does Dr. John have an agenda of his own in all this? Obviously.