South Africa's retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu has criticised the Anglican Church and its leadership for being "obsessed" with homosexuality. He told the BBC's Radio 4 in an interview last week he was ashamed of the church for its attitude toward homosexuals. The 40-minute radio programme, to be aired next Tuesday, will focus on the conflict over homosexuality in the worldwide Anglican Church.

He said that the Anglican Church had appeared "extraordinarily homophobic" during the debate over whether Gene Robinson - an openly gay priest - should be allowed to be the Bishop of New Hampshire.

One of South Africa's most outspoken critics of apartheid and winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace prize, the 76-year-old said God "must be weeping" at seeing that the Church had such misplaced priorities. He further criticised the present Archbishop of Canterbury for not demonstrating the attributes of a "welcoming God."

"Our world is facing problems - poverty, HIV and AIDS - a devastating pandemic, and conflict. God must be weeping looking at some of the atrocities that we commit against one another. In the face of all of that, our Church, especially the Anglican Church, at this time is almost obsessed with questions of human sexuality."

"If we are going to not welcome or invite people because of sexual orientation, yes. If God as they say is homophobic I wouldn't worship that God."

Reiterating what he had previously expressed, the Archbishop admonished religious conservatives who say that homosexuality is a choice that gay people make: "It is a perversion if you say to me that a person chooses to be homosexual. You must be crazy to choose a way of life that exposes you to a kind of hatred. It's like saying you choose to be black in a race infected society."

BBC Radio 4 will air From Calvary To Lambeth on Tuesday, Nov 27 from 8pm-8.40pm and again on Sunday, Dec 2 from 5-5.40pm on Radio 4 FM. The programme can be heard online at bbc.co.uk/radio4.