Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane has sternly rebuked the dean of Cape Town's St George's Cathedral, Rowan Smith, after Smith appeared in a public service announcement aimed at challenging peoples perceptions about gays and lebsians - fully vested in liturgical clothing with a devil's tail peeping out from underneath his robes.
The public service announcement, screened during the J&B South African Gay and Lesbian film festival, showed the dean in vestments, intoning: "They say that homosexuals are the devil's spawn, but I don't believe that."
As he turns from the altar, one can see that he has a devil's tail.
At issue is not Smith's sexuality, but whether his actions become the dean of the cathedral.
To make matters worse, a photograph of Smith taken during the video shoot was published in the Sunday Times Metro on January 30. This brought matters to a head as complaints started streaming in from laity and clergy.
According to sources close to the cathedral, the archbishop summoned Smith to discuss the discontent. Following this meeting, Njongonkulu said that Smith "admits he made a serious error of judgment in appearing personally, in the cathedral and fully vested, in a 20-second public service announcement".
In a letter to all clergy in the diocese of Cape Town, read in the cathedral on Sunday, Ndungane said that he believed that, by appearing in the public service advertisement that was shown during the J&B South African Gay and Lesbian film festival, "the dean opened himself to misunderstanding and that his action has caused justifiable pain to many people.
"We accept his apology, and his undertaking that he will reflect very deeply on this incident and on the manner in which he will in future seek to be true to his principles. We ask you to pray for the dean, the cathedral and all who have been hurt by this incident".
At the same service, a statement was read from Smith in which he said he regretted that a visit to Seattle, in the United States, had "made it impossible for me to be with you ... to address myself to you on the subject".
Smith apologised to the congregation "for those who have felt hurt and offended by my appearing in vestments and displaying a devil's tail. The impression given, without explanation, was misleading as to its purpose ... However, may I say that I am sorry for the damage this has caused to both the cathedral and the diocese and I ask your forgiveness".
In a statement read after Smith's apology, film festival director Nodi Murphy said: "The purpose of the shoot was to challenge people's perceptions in a humorous way.
"What is being mocked is not the church, nor is this a camp joke. The subtext of this public announcement is that many people, rather than seeing public figures who are openly gay or who support gay rights as important role models in a changing society, continue to view them as devils."
But many have failed to see the humour behind the video.
A member of the clergy, who asked not to be identified, supported the motive behind the message - but not the medium: "If he'd appeared in his black suit and dog collar in a dignified manner and come out in support of the film festival, that would have been a whole different thing. I think there was an error of judgment."
Christopher Gregorowski, the regional Bishop of Table Bay, confirmed on Tuesday night that angry parishoners had handed a letter to the cathedral's church wardens, and that the wardens would meet on Wednesday evening to discuss its contents.
Sources close to the cathedral say that "the hawks are circling", with a number of senior priests in the province eyeing the dean's position.
Smith has been open about his sexual preference. On the eve of his installation as dean in 1996, he said that he saw his links with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance developing.
"We must ask: How do we deal in a creative way to affirm people's human sexuality? Are we truly inclusive?"
In his statement on Sunday, the archbishop re-affirmed the Church of the Province of Southern Africa's support for gay and lesbian people, saying: "We uphold the principle expressed in the bishop's statement of May 7 1997: 'The harshness and hostility to homosexual people still expressed by many within our church, as well as other people, is neither acceptable nor is it in accord with our Lord's love of all people'."
The statement said that Smith has "taken steps to ensure that the video is withdrawn from circulation with immediate effect."
On Tuesday, the archbishop made the statements available to the Cape Times, but referred further questions to Gregorowski.
Gregorowski said that he had received many angry complaints about the photograph, and that he believed the issue was simply that people were angry that Smith had used the cathedral, vestments and his position as dean to convey a particular message.
He said the devil's tail lay at the core of the complaints, and many saw this as blasphemy. The bishop said he doubted that any of the complainants had seen the video and that the complaints stemmed from the picture in the newspaper.
Last night, Nodi and another film festival director, Jack Lewis, said that "the festival committee sincerely regrets any offence that may have been caused by our public service announcement that featured the Very Reverend Rowan Smith. In deference to the sensitivities that this public service announcement has evoked, we immediately withdrew it from the film festival".
They said that the "intention and motivation ... was to reveal the absurdity of overused epithets that form the basis of hate speech, prejudice and discrimination still prevalent in our society."
Murphy and Lewis said that it was appropriate to involve Smith in the public service announcement as he was a church leader of unimpeachable integrity.
Carrie Shelver, director of the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality, said the reaction to the public service announcement reflected the deep-seated antagonism towards homosexuality that still exists in the church.
"Rather than attacking Dean Smith on his courageous stand, the church authorities should be looking at the level of homophobia in the church," she said.
Asked whether Sunday's apology and statement had cooled down tempers, or whether there was an attempt to unseat Smith, Gregorowski said that he had no knowledge of moves to remove Smith from office.
The battle of the tail is the second serious controversy to beset the cathedral recently. Last year, cathedral priest Lawrence Mathebula pleaded guilty before a church tribunal for giving cause for scandal and offence, but denied raping a parishioner who had come to him for counselling.
Mathebula was found guilty by a church tribunal and stripped of his priestly living by the archbishop for five years.