How do you 'conform' to a mystery?

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Jul 08, 2010

So it seems Dr. Jeffrey John will not become an Anglican bishop after all. While conservatives in the Church of England are relieved that they will not have their first avowedly homosexual bishop, Dr. John's supporters are understandably disappointed. 

The case is admittedly a confusing one:

John, although united in a civil partnership with his long-term partner, has declared he is celibate, conforming to Anglican teaching.

Still we have a few questions:

• What is Anglican teaching on the morality of homosexual acts?
• Does the teaching at St. Alban's cathedral differ from that in  the dioceses of Reading and Southwark? As radically as the teaching in Africa differs from that in the US?
• If the Anglican communion can tolerate an active homosexual as a bishop in New Hampshire, but cannot accept a celibate homosexual as Bishop of Southwark, what can we deduce?