Church of England bishops refuse to back gay marriage
Church of England bishops have refused to back a change in teaching to allow priests to marry same-sex couples, sources have told BBC News.
The Church of England's bishops met on Tuesday to finalise their recommendations after five years of consultation and debate on the Church's position on sexuality.
Their proposal will be debated at the Church's equivalent of a parliament - the General Synod - next month.
BBC News spoke to several bishops present at the meeting who said the Church's teaching that Holy Matrimony is only between one man and one woman would not change and would not be put to a vote.
It comes after years of debate over the issue.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in England and Wales since 2013. But when the law changed, the Church did not change its teaching.
In 2017, the Church of England began an extended consultation period called 'Living in Love and Faith'.
In November last year, the Bishop of Oxford became the most senior Church of England bishop to publicly back a change in the Church's teaching. Although a handful of others supported him, they remained in the minority.
The refusal to propose a vote on allowing same-sex marriage is likely to anger campaigners for change within the Church.
Some have already told BBC News they will ask the synod to strike out the bishops' proposals next month.
'Prayers for God's blessing'
The bishops' decision puts the Church of England at odds with its Anglican equivalent in Scotland, The Scottish Episcopal Church, and the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, which both allow same-sex weddings.
The Anglican Church in Wales has provided an authorised service of blessing for gay couples but does not allow same-sex weddings in church.
English bishops will recommend that some "prayers for God's blessing" for gay couples in civil marriages be adopted, the BBC expects.
A controversial church document from 1991 that says clergy in same-sex relationships must remain celibate will be scrapped. And the Church will also issue an apology for the way it has excluded LGBT+ people, BBC News was told by several bishops.
One liberal bishop present at the meeting said there had been "substantial progress".
"It's evolutionary," they said. "It's not the end of the road."
A conservative bishop said: "We're being honest about the fact we're not of one mind in these issues. But we're not going to give up walking together."
'Deep disappointment'
Charlie Bell, 33, and his partner Piotr Baczyk, 27, live in south east London, where Charlie is a priest. They have been waiting to marry until the church allows gay weddings.
He said they felt a "deep disappointment" that the bishops weren't proposing a vote on same-sex marriages.
"It leaves same-sex couples in a bit of a limbo and also as second-class citizens," he told BBC News.
"We're still saying to gay couples that their relationships are less than relationships between people of opposite sexes."
However, he said they would continue to campaign for the Church to change its teaching on marrying gay couples.
He said: "This isn't over. If the bishops think this will resolve the current situation they are very much mistaken."
A Church of England spokesman declined to comment on the specifics of the bishops' recommendations but said: "Bishops met today and continued a final review of a Living in Love and Faith paper that will be considered by synod.
"The papers will be finalised and made publicly available later this week."
Why would anyone listen to your ignorant maunderings on the subject of marriage, Gene? Not that you have written a single word of your own on the subject since your desperate and doomed campaign against same sex marriage nine years ago, with the same piece of vapid doggerel.
ReplyDeleteAnd anyway, where do you get off laying down the law about marriage? Until "Marianne" threw you out, you had been in an adulterous marriage for nearly thirty years, your original marriage having been "annulled" by the bogus RC sleight of hand that says that if, you had your fingers crossed at the altar, your marriage vows went unheard by God.
And not only an adulterer, but the father of three illegitimate children and, by now, an illegitimate grandchild. A bunch of bastards taking after you, to coin a phrase.
Why would anyone in their right senses listen to you on the subject? Would you buy a bottle of hair restorer from a bald man?
My marriage is sound. I am married to the most wonderful woman in the world.
ReplyDeleteGene
No you are not. You are married to the woman whom you couldn't satisfy sexually all those years ago. You are not married to "Marianne" - the "annulment" process is a theological fiction.
DeleteAnd by your own telling, "Marianne" threw you out of her bed years ago, when she got tired of your drunken pawings after a night at The Good Yarn [before they threw you out for assaulting another customer when you were pissed]. Not to mention your intermittent impotence and, on the rare occasions when you were sober, your chronic premature ejaculation...
DeleteFree speech, Gene - my right as well as yours.
ReplyDeleteAnd make no mistake, this is only the start. Get ready for a complete public humiliation: Mgr Martin Hayes responded very quickly on Tuesday, as did Roger Carr Jones. And the Safeguarding Advisory Service were particularly interested in the posts about your groping and sexual harassment of the young female staff at your last school. I believe that they are organising a meet with the headteacher on that topic. If any of those young women are still in post [eight years after you left some of them will be, I am sure] then I look forward to the solids hitting the air conditioning in a big way soon.
Detterling you seem to forget that not that many years ago in this country it was perfectly acceptable for a man to give a young lady a friendly pat on the backside. Sadly, the Woke, Pinko liberal killjoy brigade has put an end to those happy days.
ReplyDeleteGENE
Well, we'll see what Martin Hayes and Roger Carr Jones have to say. They were very interested in the findings of my research among your past female colleagues, not to mention the girls when you were acting Head of Sixth form. Another bargain from Newcastle Detectives...
ReplyDelete"The thing about Bobby WIlloughby was that he thought he was God's gift to women when in fact he was a total creep. A lot of us used to bring a change of knickers to work so we could change them and throw the original ones away after he'd groped us: he had clammy hands with bitten fingernails, and after he'd touched you up you felt really soiled. The worst thing was that he used to corner you somewhere on your own, so that there were never any witnesses, and it would be your word against his, and he was such a greaser and crawler to the SMT that the management would never have risked a confrontation. I still dream about Gene's clawy fingers down my bum-crack sometimes, and when I do I always wake up crying my eyes out. I think he's really evil, and I can't understand why Marianne - who is a lovely, gentle, kind, honest person - put up with him for so long. I hope he dies in agony and rots in hell." [Written testimony of Teresa Beauchamp, sometime teacher of Sociology, the [redacted] Martyrs [redacted] School, [redacted] Westminster Diocese.]
ReplyDelete