Madeleine Davies has this news report: ‘C of E’ gives an opinion on same-sex marriage
GOVERNMENT plans to legalise same-sex marriage threaten to “cut one of the threads of the Establishment”, senior church officials have said.
On Tuesday, the officials submitted a response, purportedly from the Church of England, to the Government’s consultation, which closed yesterday. The response, which is unattributed, was accompanied by a covering letter from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.
Within 24 hours, a petition objecting to the views in the response paper had attracted more than 1000 signatures.
The paper argues that to permit same-sex marriage would “dilute” marriage for everybody. It criticises the “fallacious assumption” that religious marriage differs from civil marriage. And it warns that the Government’s promise to limit same-sex couples to non-religious ceremonies would face the “serious prospect” of a successful challenge in the European Court of Human Rights…
…The claim that the response represents the official view of the Church of England has already been challenged. On Tuesday, the Revd Ian Stubbs, Priest-in-Charge of All Saints’, Glossop, posted a petition dissociating himself from the official submission. “I am bitterly disappointed by the Church’s shameful and outdated response to the proposals for gay marriage.” When the Church Times went to press, it had attracted 1076 signatures.
The LGB&T Anglican Coalition criticised the “scandalous lack of consultation” in the preparation of the response. The failure to recognise that same-sex couples seeking marriage wanted “something deeply spiritual which strengthens both the couple and society” had “impoverished” the Church’s teaching on marriage.
On Tuesday, Stonewall published a poll of of 2074 adults suggesting that 71 per cent of people, and 58 per cent of “people of faith”, in their sample supported the proposals to legalise same-sex marriage. The charity argues that the “vitriol” seen in statements by “some senior clerics” in relation to the proposals is evidence of a “deeply worrying prejudice toward gay people”. It argues that extending the right to marry to gay people is an “appropriate remedy” to discrimination.
There is also a leader: Gay marriage: whose views are these?
MANY churchgoers woke on Tuesday morning to learn about their adamant opposition to same-sex marriage. Whether they agree with its position or not, they will find the paper submitted to the Government’s consultation on their behalf to be tendentious and poorly argued. In brief, it says that the government consultation on same-sex marriage is flawed (it is); that marriage has always been defined as between a man and a woman (it has); that matters such as consummation will be hard to work into a new definition (they will); and that there is a false distinction being made between civil and religious marriage (there is, although this is the Government’s clumsy attempt to preserve the Church’s right to discriminate).
Besides these points, however, the paper makes a number of unsupported claims. In just one example, it states that the view of marriage as “a lifelong union of one man with one woman” is “derived from the teaching of Christ himself”, first without citing which teaching, and second without any apparent embarrassment over the use of the word “lifelong”. The impression that Church and state have walked hitherto arm in arm up and down the aisle can be sustained only by ignoring the huge chasm over divorce that opened in the 19th century. Much is made of the Church’s supposed susceptibility to legal challenge; but again, this has not been its experience when clerics have refused second marriages in church. Hardest to follow are the paper’s arguments that the benefits society derives from heterosexual marriage will somehow be absent if marriage is extended to same-sex couples.
Whether its legal arguments hold water, the paper is right to suppose that pressure will increase on the Church to comply. Had the Church been as welcoming of civil partnerships as this paper implies, this crisis might have been averted. By declining to bless them, the Church contributed to the impression that civil partnerships were mere legal arrangements, and not declarations of love and commitment. It is patronising to dismiss the desire to emphasise this as merely answering an “emotional need”.
There are many in the C of E, and in the country at large, who hold traditional views of marriage. These ought to be respected. But so, too, should the views of those who, in conscience, see gay partnerships as comparable with marriage to the extent that the use of the same word now seems right. It is astonishing that the unnamed authors of the submission refer to themselves as “the Church of England” on a subject so contentious that two reviews are in progress to discover what people in the Church of England actually think.
Does anyone have a link to Ian Stubb’s petition?
Well written editorial. Spot on.
I found the document issues in the name of the Church deeply offensive in its language and content. The Church has its own rules. It is very successful in dissenting from State legislation and has secured a privileged position in regard to its attitude to women and homosexuals. Let the State go its own way and the Church its own way, but also let us make room for individual conscience as to how and where marriages can be celebrated by people of good faith, and differeing views. gays and leasbians and transexiuals shoul dbe able to marry in society, whatever… Read more »
The Nameless Church of England reaction? Predictably Patriarchal and Paternalistic, oh and Patronising!
A balanced and sensible editorial which addresses the issues in an intelligent and sensitive way, recognising and appreciating the diversity of opinion in the Church of England. If only this had been the basis of our response to the Government’s Consultation and not that issued in the name of the Bishops on “our behalf”, which has already caused so much offence and misunderstanding.
I am ashamed of The Archbishops of Canterbury and York. This is yet another act of rhetorical violence against the glbt community and it needs to be challenged in a very public manner. Equality seems to be something many in the hierarchy simply do not understand. This truly makes some members of the Church of England hierarchy appear as sneaks and cowards. Truly shameful.
Paul: try https://www.change.org/petitions/not-in-our-name.
There is always diversity of opinion. That’s just not a basis for defining policy, whereas the Canons of the Church, Resolutions and Acts of General Synod and Pastoral Statements are.
Don’t like it? Get yourselves and the like-minded onto the electoral rolls everywhere, get yourselves elected to a majority in the Houses of Laity and Clergy in General Synod and change it.
Among the many flaws in the C of E document (sorry Church Times, you too are wrong on this) is the strange assertion that there is no difference between church and secular marriage. I can point to any number of books on my shelf of books on marriage and matrimonial institutions that show the teaching of the Christian church at least until recent times as declaring that the marriage of non-Christians is not “marriage” at all — or at least not Christian marriage. How could it be! Scripture also shows, in Paul’s permission to non-Christians to divorce, that he regarded… Read more »
‘… two reviews are in progress to discover what people in the Church of England actually think.’
Really? I thought that the two reviews had been set up to decide what the Church thinks. Not the same thing at all.
Here’s the link to Ian Stubbs’ petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/church-of-england-not-in-our-name (also worth retweeting and Facebooking etc if you do such things).
Meanwhile, in other news, the C of E’s sister church and partner in full communion, the Church of Denmark, solemnised its first same-sex church marriages today… a situation impossible to countenance in England, according to the present feeble-minded House of Bishops.
http://www.b.dk/nationalt/danmark-har-faaet-sit-foerste-homoseksuelle-aegtepar
Here is a better link in English:
http://politiken.dk/newsinenglish/ECE1657875/denmarks-first-gay-church-wedding/
Paul This might be what you are looking for, – http://www.change.org/petitions/church-of-england-not-in-our-name.
Paul, Google change.org – Ian Stubbs
Perhaps we can comfort ourselves that at the July synod,”As in July 2011, part of the Saturday morning has been structured in such a way as to foster a culture of listening and reflection in the Synod.” It has done so much good before, especially among the bishops. Are flying pigs invited?
Thank God for ECUSA>
Richard Ashby writes: “Really? I thought that the two reviews had been set up to decide what the Church thinks. Not the same thing at all.” No, Richard, according to the press release of 5th January 2012 the purpose and the goal of the HoB group looking at the Church of England’s approach to human sexuality is this: “The House of Bishops announced on 1 July that it intended to draw together material from the listening process undertaken within the Church of England over recent years in the light of the 1998 Lambeth Conference resolution on human sexuality. It also… Read more »
Isn’t it slightly odd that the Church Times is taking such a critical line (*purportedly* from the Church of England)? The response should have been authorized by someone (despite that fact that it’s not signed), since it was delivered with a cover letter from ++Cantuar and ++Ebor. I’ve not been reading the Church Times regularly, but normally they’re at least polite about what those in Bishop World are doing. Here, they’re downright dismissive! Seems like a less-than polite English response to me. Not that I don’t agree with their take…
Jeremy, I stand corrected but I would also argue that this week’s farce has also shown that the HoB is already closing down avenues of discussion by its intemperate and premature denunciation of the government’s proposals for gay marriage. If there is really a drawing together of the ‘listening process’, a process which has had no beginning or end, no format, no structure, no method, no one holding it together, no one recording what is being said and by whom, then the HoB should have honestly said that it couldn’t comment on the Government’s proposals because the Church was still… Read more »
Dear David,
You said: ‘That’s just not a basis for defining policy, whereas the Canons of the Church, Resolutions and Acts of General Synod and Pastoral Statements are.’
It’s worth remembering that the powers to enact Canons, Resolutions, Acts of Synod and Pastoral Statements are all _delegated_ powers. The body which delegated them, namely Parliament, retains the option of “defining policy” (which in this case, really means “authorising liturgy”) directly. After the events of the last few days, I cannot imagine that members of both Houses are not sorely tempted.
The 1753 Marriage Act ensured that ‘the only legally recognised marriages in Britain (with the exception of Jews and Quakers) were those performed in a parish church by a clergyman of the Church of England’. This measure was introduced to stamp out clandestine marriages. The Act placed a duty on the church to solemnise marriages of persons of any faith or none, within a parish, as long as they had the capacity required by law. It imposed an obligations on prospective spouses to be married by and Anglican clergyman, since without a legal marriage, they had no legal rights as… Read more »
No-one is introducing a new category for marriage; existing jurisprudence is retained (though developed over time and adapted to new cases as is the nature of case law); it is merely that the ban on same sex couples will be lifted.
The introduction of divorce by the State is an example of changing and different ‘conditions’ (as between church(es) and the State), so it can happen, and does already.
This is an overwrought and stretched red herring, one of several but I see they are capable of near indefinite recycling.
The 1753 Marriage Act ensured that ‘the only legally recognised marriages in Britain (with the exception of Jews and Quakers) were those performed in a parish church by a clergyman of the Church of England’. – David Shepherd –
Then maybe now is the time to get real!
Craig:
The red herring is that your supportive example of divorce has nothing to do with the consistent requirements of prospective parties to spouses.
On that basis, your argument has lost credibility.
I think divorce is apposite because for a long time the Church did not sanction remarriage after divorce and only now does so on a variable basis (apparently without anyone taking it to the European Court of Human Rights).
One wonders how those millions of people who do not happen to belong to the State Church of England feel about this denial of their basic human rights by a religious organisation they do not belong to.
The Church of England has enough of a job keeping its own house in order, without trying to legislate for the whole country on this issue.
Craig: While I don’t defend the Anglican Church’s allowance for pastoral discretion in the re-marriage in church of the divorced, before 1857, a full divorce could still be granted for the specific cause of adultery. The comparison of varying conditions for granting a full divorce has tangential relevance to the capacity requirements for all prospective spouses. Consider that the focus of the proposal is on: 1. distinguishing civil marriage as a different entity from religious marriage, when they only differ by the mode of entry. 2. changing the requirements common to all prospective couples entering marriage, while stating that they… Read more »
Fr Smith, I can’t see your point apart from the exuberance with which you hold it. Isn’t the actual point that the legal duty of the CofE is irrelevant in cases outwith their own descriptions of marriage? No one is ‘being denied basic human rights by a religious organisation, etc’. The ‘religious organisation’in question can leave fully untouched whether couples in the same gender who want to have their relationships protected by law can do so. They can. Provision has been made. Presumably if they wish to call this ‘marriage’ that will be up to them, but it cannot be… Read more »
“Some find ‘marriage equivalence’ condescending and a capitulation to heterosexism and/or so-called ‘Christian’ values.” cseitz
And others don’t.
I want to have a civil marriage with my partner.
David S., perhaps if you framed the divorce question in the terms in which it is applied to marriage it might help. “Being unmarried” (whether by virtue of never having been married, or through widowhood, an annulment or legal divorce, is a “capacity requirement” if you will, a “necessary condition” for entering into a legal marriage. That being said, the Church makes distinctions concerning which divorces it recognizes — if, as in the case of the Roman Catholic Church, it recognizes them at all. There is no legal difference between marriages officiated by the state or the church; but there… Read more »
‘but there are some marriages the church will not recognize that the state will’ Tobias, The church and state may indeed disagree on whether a prospective spouse is unmarried, i.e. whether a previous marriage and divorce would render that person unmarried. Nevertheless, both the church and the State agree that ‘being unmarried’ is a ‘capacity requirement’, without which any marriage is void. Whether by church or civil ceremony, the disqualification, ‘that at the time of the marriage either party was already lawfully married’ (MCA 1972 Section 11(b)) applies to all prospective spouses in the UK. The distinction, then, is not… Read more »
David, let me try once again. The issue for the church is in solemnizing marriages; and the church is free not to solemnize some marriages that can be solemnized under the civil law. As far as I know the legal _status_ of being married does not confer any ecclesiastical rights or entail any responsibilities. The church therefore has no interest in distinguishing between a married or an unmarried couple; or married or unmarried individuals; it is only the _rite_ of marriage that is at issue. Perhaps the confusion here is the use of “marriage” both for the estate and the… Read more »
Tobias, One issue for the church is in solemnising marriages, but the issue for the State is that priests in England are agents of the state, under a statutory duty (not just authority) to marry all legally eligible partners, who wish for a church wedding and are resident in their parish in accordance with the rites of the Church of England. This is regardless of the beliefs and affiliations of the couple. If it was a difference in interpreting a disqualification, like the divorced being considered already (and still) married, then I’d agree that the church could legally withold the… Read more »
Dear David,
Since you’ve used that verb “force”, I’ll reiterate something I’ve already pointed out on another forum…
It is a logical impossibility for an Act of Parliament to “force” the Church of England into anything. Parliament is the ultimate governing body of the Church of England. Therefore, anything contained in an Act of Parliament is, by definition, something to which the governing body of the Church has voluntarily agreed.
Feria,
‘Parliament is the ultimate governing body of the Church of England.’
So, are you asserting that the Church of England would have no choice, but to comply with the Act of Parliament? That appears to support the CofE response to the proposals.
I thought that others here were claiming the opposite was true.
No David, I’m not asserting anything of the sort. As per Adam Wagner, I think it unlikely that the Bill, as initially proposed by the Government, will have any effect whatsoever on what happens in the Church of England. I’m thinking a little further ahead, to the possibility that a backbench amendment changes the Bill, so that it explicitly introduces a same-sex marriage liturgy for the Church of England. Even that would not mean that ‘the Church of England would have no choice’. Instead, it would mean that the Church of England, through its governing body Parliament, had _made_ a… Read more »
Feria,
Like the introduction of Lord Alli’s amendment, then, but with Parliament overriding the function of General Synod in approving the church’s liturgy.
Sounds like wish-fulfilment.
No “overriding” involved – General Synod’s rôle in approving the church’s liturgy is a rôle that was delegated to Synod by Parliament, in the Church of England (Worship and Doctrine) Measure 1974. As the then Lord President of the Council, Edward Short, made clear in the House of Commons on 4th December 1974, the delegation is non-exclusive, i.e. Parliament retains the power to approve liturgy itself. (The relevant form of words used by Mr. Short was ‘and Parliament can always do that’.) As for “wish fulfilment”: you have correctly guessed that I personally would be content if Parliament did act… Read more »
“No one is ‘being denied basic human rights by a religious organisation, etc’. The ‘religious organisation’in question can leave fully untouched whether couples in the same gender who want to have their relationships protected by law can do so. They can. Provision has been made.” – cseitz – Again, Christopher, I have to call your bluff. What the Church of England Statement is trying to do is to prevent Same-Sex Marriage in the U.K. Whatever other relationship is allowed by law at the moment in the U.K. it cannot be legally called ‘Marriage’. And for the C.of E. to oppose… Read more »