ABSTRACT
Richard Harries has been closely involved with the Anglican Church's ongoing discussions about sexuality, especially same-sex relationships, during the last couple of decades. Within the Church of England, he was a member of the group that produced the influential House of Bishops' report, Issues in Human Sexuality, in 1991. The chapter looks at the need for continued dialogue about sexuality, and in particular homosexuality, in the Church. It shows how and why the Church has in many regards failed in practice to live up to its own expectations — a failure witnessed by the constant threat of splits in the Anglican Communion on precisely this subject. The chapter provides some suggestions as to how in the future; the Church might go about enabling and engaging in such conversations. It briefly describes the particular role of the Church of England in English society, and the possible consequences that the Jeffrey John 'episode' may have had on that role.
