Sydney Archbishop Apologises For ‘Mistakenly’ Promoting Gay Evangelical
The Anglican archbishop of Sydney has apologised to the clergy after “mistakenly” promoting an event by a gay evangelical in the diocese’s newspaper. The Catholic archdiocese printed an advertisement in their Southern Cross newspaper, which promoted gay rights campaigner Jayne Ozanne’s upcoming talk entitled Unashamedly Gay. Unashamedly Christian, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.Trigger Warning: This story discusses suicide ideation, which might be distressing to some readers. For 24-hour crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14. For Australia-wide LGBTQI peer support call QLife on 1800 184 527 or webchat.Jayne Ozanne is the director of the Ozanne Foundation, an organisation that works with religious leaders and faith groups across the world with the aim of protecting the rights of LGBTQI people. The advertisement for her talk was taken down from the online edition and replaced with a photograph of a sunset. Archbishop Kanishka Raffel published an announcement to the clergy, declaring his regret over his decision to accept the advertisement. In the newsletter, Archbishop Raffel apologised for causing “distress” to the clergy and affirmed that the editorial process would go under review to prevent mistakes like this from happening in future.