Gay relationships 'not sinful'

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Dr Rowan Williams apparently said in private correspondence that gay relationships could "reflect the love of God" in the same way as marriage as long they were lasting and faithful.

The Archbishop exchanged letters with Deborah Pitt, a psychiatrist and evangelical Christian living in his former archdiocese in south Wales.

Media reports quoted one letter saying: "I concluded that an active sexual relationship between two people of the same sex might therefore reflect the love of God in a way comparable to marriage, if and only if it had about it the same character of absolute covenanted faithfulness."

The letters, written in 2000 and 2001 before he became Archbishop of Canterbury in 2002, reaffirmed his liberal stance towards the subject of gay relationships.

His correspondence to Dr Pitt expresses his belief that the Bible describes promiscuity as sinful and not people who are homosexual by nature.

He said as a theologian rather than a church leader he was more liberal on the subject, despite recommitting the Anglican Communion to its position that homosexual practice was not compatible with scripture at the recent Lambeth Conference.

Dr Williams also expressed his wish that the Church would relent towards homosexuality over time.

He said: "The Church has shifted its stance on several matters - notably the rightness of lending money at interest and the moral admissibility of contraception, so I am bound to ask if this is another such issue.

"If I am really seriously wrong on this, I can only pray to be shown the truth."