Anglican church should lift ban on blessings for gay couples, report says

The Church of England should lift its ban on blessing people in same-sex relationships and discuss whether gay clergy and bishops should be expected to live celibate lives, according to a much-anticipated report published on Thursday on the church’s attitude to sexuality.

The report of the house of bishops’ working group on human sexuality – which was chaired by the retired civil servant Sir Joseph Pilling – suggests that Anglican priests should be free to “mark the formation of a permanent same-sex relationship in a public service” if they wish to do so and if they have the agreement of their parochial church council.

The Pilling report also says the church should not authorise a formal liturgy for such services, raising the prospect of individual priests being able to offer same-sex couples a marriage ceremony in all but name. While stressing that it is not advocating any change to the church’s teaching on sexual conduct, it suggests that the house of bishops may wish to consider whether it should issue guidance on liturgy.

Speaking at a press conference following the report’s publication, Sir Joseph said one consequence of the lack of authorised liturgy was the “room for manoeuvre” when it came to the kind of ceremony priests might be able to offer same-sex couples.

He also acknowledged some Anglican priests were already conducting unofficial church blessings for same-sex couples. “This is going on in various ways at the moment,” he said.

The report’s 18 recommendations come amid growing tensions in the Anglican communion over the Church of England’s approach to sexuality and seven months after it firmly ruled out offering blessings to same-sexual couples.

The deeply divisive nature of the subject was further underlined by the fact that one member of the working group refused to put his name to its recommendations. In a 27-page statement included in the report, the Rt Rev Keith Sinclair, bishop of Birkenhead, said he feared it risked undermining “the discipleship and pastoral care of many faithful Christians” and leading the church into “cultural captivity”.

The report will be discussed by the house of Bishops next month and debated further by the college of Bishops in January 2014. If its suggestions are adopted, the church will embark on a two-year period of “facilitated conversations”, meaning no firm decisions are likely before early to mid-2016.  TRUNews