● Over in Great Britain, a panel for the Church of England issued a 34,000-word report saying that in some circumstances “a homosexual relationship involving the physical expression of free love” can be justified. The report also recommended that homosexuals not be barred from priesthood.

● A panel commissioned by England’s Methodist Church issued a report saying that homosexual relationships are not wrong and that this “obviously removes the grounds for denying any person membership of the Church or holding office within it solely because of his or her sexual orientation.”

A United Church of Canada Task Force on Sexuality released a report in the spring advocating that the church take a “contextual” approach to morality. Among other things, the 100-page report suggests that intercourse for unmarried persons may be all right in certain circumstances, that an “honest and strong intention to faithfulness” in marriage should be stressed rather than the “sexual exclusivity” that marital fidelity now implies, and that “mature, self-accepting homosexuals” should be allowed to become ministers.

What, then, makes a sexual relationship all right? According to the panel, it must be ‘creative and liberating, mutually supportive, socially responsible and joyous’​—things which, in the minds of participants, are achieved during almost any sexual act. A spokesman for the report argued that “sexual morality has to keep up with the social sciences” because “God speaks to us through them as well as through the Bible.” Many United Church members felt betrayed. In letters to the task force, church members wrote of being “greatly disturbed,” “disgusted,” or “devastated and ashamed.” One woman wrote: “The devil must be laughing. I for one will be leaving.”

● Similarly, Canada’s Anglican Church, which had authorized ordination of homosexuals as priests in 1979, also issued a report suggesting that “conventional prissiness” about unmarried couples living together should be dropped.