Ten members of OutRage! scaled the walls of Lambeth Palace today at noon, confronting Archbishop George Carey and sixteen leading Anglican primates from around the world who were meeting at the Palace to plan the 1998 Lambeth Conference.

Brandishing placards with the words "STOP CRUCIFYING QUEERS", they were protesting against Archbishop Carey's prerecorded comments on ITV/Meridian Television which were being broadcast simultaneously, where he ruled out any rôle in the Church for clergy in homosexual relationships. (About a quarter of Anglican priests in Britain are believed to be gay, and most of these are sexually active.) Dr. Carey also said that the Church would never endorse same-sex marriage.

Reverting to a hardline position, Archbishop Carey said there were only two options for Christian: marriage or celibacy. This view endorses the continuing victimisation of gay people, both in the Church and in the wider society, says OutRage!.

The protest was also directed against Dr. Carey's insistence that the issues of gay clergy and homosexual human rights will not be on the agenda of the 1998 Lambeth Conference: a worldwide gathering of the Anglican Church, which takes place every ten years.

Members of OutRage! remonstrated with George Carey for ten minutes, pointing out that, during the seven years since Carey became Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the internation Anglican community:

• he has repeatedly refused to meet representatives of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement;
  
• gay priests in loving homosexual relationships have been forced out of the Church;
  
• Anglican bishops in the House of Lords refused to vote for an equal age of consent for gay men;
  
• the Church of England Children's Society has banned lesbians and gay men from fostering;
  
• Anglican churches are providing material support to antigay cults which preach that homosexuals are sick and need healing.

      Shortly after the OutRage! invasion of Lambeth Palace, church officials spent an estimated £ 100,000 on erecting a 12-foot security fence on top of the Palace walls. No wonder the church has been in financial crisis!

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