Did he or didn’t he?

So then, did he, or didn’t he? Or, more to the point, will he or won’t he in the future?

The Daily Telegraph seemed to be in no doubt: ‘Archbishop urges Christians to “repent” over “wicked” attitude to homosexuality’, it proclaimed in a headline, boldly. Over on the conservative Virtue Online website — the self-proclaimed ‘voice for global orthodox Anglicanism’ — commentator Father Dale Matson said he believed the Archbishop was developing ‘an “evolved” response to contemporary sexual issues... based on polling data rather than Scripture’.

Colin Coward, of the gay and lesbian group Changing Attitudes, was reported elsewhere as saying that Justin Welby was calling for ‘a complete reversal of traditional Christian teaching and attitudes to lesbian and gay people’.