At last a senior and respected clergyman has stood up in New Zealand and addressed in no uncertain terms the vexed question of some churches' attitudes to sexuality.

In fact, the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, the Most Rev Peter Jensen, has gone so far as to say that human sexuality is correctly the issue at which Anglican churches should consider breaking fellowship.

But it is not just the Anglican Church torn apart by this controversy; the Presbyterian and Methodist churches are similarly afflicted.

Archbishop Jensen made his comments in an address to a conference of the evangelical Latimer Fellowship in Christchurch. His remarks, of course, did not receive a line in the daily press or - as far as I know - on television or radio.

So because I consider what he has to say is critically important - and not just to Christians - I give up my podium this week to the good archbishop so a summary of his remarks can receive wider circulation.

He said: "The biblical ideal of sexual relationships specifically excludes same-sex relationships. The biblical teaching makes this a matter of spiritual life and death. That is crystal clear from both the Old and New Testaments.

"I say with all solemnity to those who say the blessing of same-sex unions is okay, and who will ordain clergy living in same-sex unions: how can you do this when the souls of those involved are in peril?

"This is an enormously serious matter. And in the blessing of same-sex unions and the consecration or ordination of persons living in those relationships, we are saying to the community as a whole that these relationships have the blessing of God, when the scriptures say those who are in them are excluded from the kingdom of heaven.

"This lifestyle is spiritually perilous. Encouraging it is endangering the lives and eternal destiny of those involved, and it is inconsistent with the duties of a minister of God's word.

"This lifestyle is also unhealthy. I am astonished that the medical profession has not risen to a person and told us the truth and opposed it. The dereliction of duty of the medical profession is one of the most shameful parts of this whole thing."

Archbishop Jensen said the whole sexual revolution - and not just the homosexual part of it - was anti-human and dehumanising.

"What the Bible teaches us about the right way to live is profoundly humanistic - it's very good for us. It's very obvious that it's true but we seem to be so wimpish about saying it, as though somehow the secular world has it all right."

The advocates of same-sex blessings and ordinations had been rather surprised at the response in the churches, said Archbishop Jensen.