AN uncompromising document released this week reinforces the ban
on public forms of blessing for those in same-sex relationships.
And it states that, although the introduction of same-sex marriage
will not make heterosexual marriage "disappear", it may make "the
path to fulfilment, in marriage and in other relationships, more
difficult to find".
The report, Men and women in marriage, was published on
Wednesday by the Faith and Order Commission, with the agreement of
the House of Bishops. It includes a foreword from the Archbishops
of Canterbury and York which commends it "for study". It was shown
to journalists at Church House on Tuesday morning, where the Bishop
of Coventry, Dr Christopher Cocksworth, who chairs the Commission
and who wrote the report, answered questions about its
contents.
The report seeks to set the disagreements between the Government
and the Church of England over same-sex marriage, which it only
mentions twice, "against a more positive background of how
Christians have understood and valued marriage". It quotes the
Common Worship marriage service: "Marriage is a gift from
God in creation."
Dr Cocksworth admitted that the document was "saying nothing
new", described it as seeking to "celebrate all that is good about
marriage in its ability to bring together biological difference and
the generative power of marriage to bring forth life. It also
recognises that there are forms of human relationships which fall
short of marriage in the form the God has given us." He hoped that
it would "help people to think and to explore . . . the refinement
of this human instinct for marriage between people of the opposite
sex.
"This document shows the deep and very beautiful Christian
refinement of that gift, but [it is] saying that, if we move from
refinement to redefinition . . . we might disrupt the environment
for human life that we have been given, just as we can do with any
other ecosystem."
The report does not affirm those in "human relationships which
fall short of marriage relationships", in contrast to the response
to the Government's consultation on same-sex marriage, published
last year, which stated that "same-sex relationships often embody
genuine mutuality and fidelity" (
News, 15 June). Its language is more guarded, stating that: "in
pastoral responses, a degree of flexibility may be called for in
finding ways to express the Church's teaching practically. . . The
Church does not treat questions of what is possible in hard
circumstances or exceptional circumstances as simply closed."
Listed as responses to "hard circumstances" are the provision
for marriage after divorce, and an initiative by African Churches
to "help baptismal candidates who were in polygamous family units
to fulfil their responsibilities without compromising the norm of
monogamy".
Civil partnerships, it says, "raise analogous issues". It
highlights the pastoral statement issued by the House of Bishops in
2005, which suggests that clergy approached by people asking for
prayer in relation to entering a civil partnership "respond
pastorally and sensitively in the light of the circumstances of
each case, having regard to the teaching of the Church on sexual
morality, celibacy, and the positive value of committed friendships
in the Christian tradition". This 2005 statement also makes it
clear that: "Clergy of the Church of England should not provide
services of blessing for those who register a civil
partnership."
The Church, the new report suggests, can "devise accommodations
for specific conditions, bearing witness in special ways to the
abiding norm". On Tuesday, Dr Cocksworth said: "The Church is here
for all people, and those who find themselves in same-sex
relationships and have committed to those, the Church treats those
people with respect, with compassionate attention, with care and
with prayer. The exact form of that prayer will depend on the case
itself, the situation that is before the pastor."
The document itself does not restate the ban on blessing
same-sex relationships, but Dr Cocksworth said that the
"well-designed accommodations" it mentions were "different from
formal public blessings". The press release accompanying the report
states: "The document is clear that public forms of blessing belong
to marriage alone."
Last year, more than 100 clerics in the diocese of London wrote
to their representatives on General Synod to ask for the right to
choose whether or not to officiate at civil-partnership ceremonies
in church (
News, 3 February 2012).
The report can be read here