As Senior Media Officer with the out-of-hours duty ‘phone that weekend, Lou Henderson St Mary’s had a busy time on 14/15 June!
It started about 2 pm on Saturday, and didn’t really stop until about 4.30 pm on Sunday. Calls came in waves: first were those to whom the news of events at St Bartholomew the Great on 31 May had been leaked; once the early editions were available on Saturday evening, the second wave of Sundays started; then as soon as all their copy was on-line late on Saturday, the third wave comprised assorted agencies, British and overseas. Lastly, on Sunday, the dailies started following up for Monday . . .
Much of the media coverage and subsequent comment displayed a sadly all too common mixture of ignorance, misunderstanding and prejudice. I therefore thought it might be helpful to set out where the Church of England actually stands!
The Church’s approach has always been clear: marriage is the lifelong union between a man and a woman, and that is what the liturgy of the C of E Marriage Service is exclusively intended for.
On civil partnerships the Church continues to uphold that standard, to affirm the value of committed, sexually abstinent friendships between people of the same sex and to minister sensitively and pastorally to those Christians who conscientiously decide to order their lives differently.
Some who register civil partnerships will seek recognition of their new situation and pastoral support by asking for a blessing in the context of an act of worship. The practice of the C of E reflects the 2003 pastoral letter from the Primates of the Anglican Communion:
‘The question of public rites for the blessing of same sex unions is still a cause of potentially divisive controversy. The Archbishop of Canterbury spoke for us all when he said that it is through liturgy that we express what we believe, and that there is no theological consensus about same sex unions. Therefore, we as a body cannot support the authorisation of such rites’.
In these circumstances it would not be right to produce an authorised public liturgy in connexion with civil partnerships. Where clergy are approached by people asking for prayer in relation to entering into a civil partnership they should respond pastorally and sensitively in the light of the circumstances of each case. But the House of Bishops has affirmed that C of E clergy should not provide services of blessing for them.
One of my own difficulties in responding to media enquiries that weekend was that the Bishop of London happened to be out of town and couldn’t be contacted! But by Sunday afternoon he had issued a statement to the effect that services of public blessing for civil partnerships were not authorised in the C of E, nor the diocese of London, and that he would be asking the Archdeacon of London to investigate what took place at the church of St Bartholomew the Great.
Then, a couple of days later, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York made the following joint statement:
“We have heard the reports of the recent service . . . with very great concern. We cannot comment on the specific circumstances because they are the subject of an investigation launched by the Bishop of London.
“On the general issue, however, the various reference points for the Church of England’s approach to human sexuality . . . are well known and remain current.
“Those clergy who disagree with the Church’s teaching are at liberty to seek to persuade others within the Church of the reasons why they believe . . . that it should be changed. But they are not at liberty simply to disregard it.” (Read full text here.)
Let us hope that the wider Anglican Communion, especially, will now recognise on reflection that the reported events appear to contravene the terms of the Bishops’ 2005 statement, rather than represent any change in Church policy.
Return to Index for the Parish of Walthamstow Magazine, July/August 2008
