A leading evangelical bishop has said that the Bible sanctions same-sex relationships, according to a report today. James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool - who was known as a conservative willing to talk about homosexuality - makes his comments in an essay in a new book, A Fallible Church, which includes contributions from several other episcopal pens. Jones also apologies for publicly opposing the appointment of Jeffrey John as Bishop of Reading, an appointment that was subsequently withdrawn when the Archbishop of Canterbury bowed to homophobic pressure.

Jones calls Anglicans to 'acknowledge the authoritative biblical examples of love between two people of the same gender most notably in the relationship of Jesus and his beloved disciple and David and Jonathan.'

Now, I've not seen the details first hand. But this change of mind strikes me as interesting. It would appear to have come about not because of any ethical debate about the rights and wrongs of gay sex; nor quite because the bishop has managed to squeeze a new interpretation out of the Bible - two ways in the which the debate is typically conducted in the church, and with growing futility.

Rather, Jones seems to have recognised that gay people love each other. Moreover, their love is potentially of the same quality as that between Jesus and John or David and Jonathan. When love is recognised as the crux of the matter, it can only be a matter of time before any preacher of a gospel of love with any integrity comes round. This is perhaps what has happened. (I understand that Jones has a gay brother, so that might have helped too.)

Though there is a twist to add to this tale of love. For as Foucault pointed out, it is because homosexuality is really about love, and not just say rules of sexual conduct, that it becomes so heated. If men and women just 'did it' together, Foucault argued, no-one would really mind. Moral authorities could publicly assert the prohibition and keep themselves pure; individuals caught in the act could repent. This is precisely how those ecclesiastics who are anti-gay want to play it.

But it is because men and women love each other that homosexuality is so contentious. When people love, the act cannot be isolated - which is why the distinction between orientation and practice is so ridiculous. Their whole lives act in accordance with their love. That is the joy and transformation for those who are free to love. That is the source of anger and disturbance for those who would deny it.