Updated yet again Tuesday afternoon
The Third Reading of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill in the House of Lords is scheduled for Monday 15 July.
The five new amendments marshalled for consideration are related to the issue of pension equalisation, and all have government approval.
The bill as amended so far is now reprinted and available as a PDF File here.
David Pocklington has provided an analysis of the numerous amendments that have been approved.
Updates
The bill has now passed at Third Reading in the House of Lords. Because of some amendments made during its passage in that house, it now returns to the House of Commons. Further action there is likely tomorrow or Wednesday.
The Hansard record of this debate starts here. PDF for the day here.
Intervention by the Bishop of Norwich here. Full text below the fold.
Media reports:
David Pocklington has again provided a detailed analysis of Monday’s proceedings.
43 CommentsUpdated again 28 July
Another Bed and Breakfast owner, Susanne Wilkinson, has lost her case at the Court of Appeal, but has been given leave to appeal to the Supreme Court, where her case will be joined with that of Peter and Hazelmary Bull, and heard on 9 October.
Media reports:
Telegraph Christian B&B owner ordered to compensate gay couple takes fight to Supreme Court
Guardian B&B owner who turned away gay couple loses appeal
BBC B&B owner who turned away gay couple loses appeal
The full text of the judgment can be found here, or as a PDF file over here.
The earlier court hearing was discussed last October on the UK Human Rights Blog by Alasdair Henderson in The thorny issue of religious belief and discrimination law (again).
Updates
Frank Cranmer at Law & Religion UK has a detailed discussion of the new judgment, in Gay couples, B&B and human rights again: Black & Anor v Wilkinson.
Alasdair Henderson at the UK Human Rights Blog has Second Christian B&B case headed for the Supreme Court
6 CommentsUpdated Friday lunchtime
The following exchange occurred on 4 July in the House of Commons, when the Second Church Estates Commissioner was answering Questions:
Ben Bradshaw (Exeter, Labour)
What guidance the Church of England plans to issue to parishes and Church schools on pastoral care for same sex couples and their children.Tony Baldry (Second Church Estates Commissioner; Banbury, Conservative)
The House of Bishops issued a pastoral statement before the Civil Partnership Act 2004 came into force in 2005. I expect that the House of Bishops will want to issue a further statement before the legislation on same-sex marriage comes into force. The House of Bishops is due to consider this December a report on sexuality, chaired by former permanent secretary Sir Joseph Pilling. The work of that group will assist the House of Bishops in its deliberations.Ben Bradshaw (Exeter, Labour)
I am grateful for that reply, because I recently came across a case of a Christian couple in a same-sex relationship and with children in the local Church primary school to whom it was made clear by the local conservative evangelical church that they would not be welcome to worship in it. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that such intolerance and bigotry have no place whatever in the Church of England? When the Church issues guidance, it is very important that that is made quite clear to both parishes and Church schools.Tony Baldry (Second Church Estates Commissioner; Banbury, Conservative)
Of course I agree with the right hon. Gentleman about that. If he would like to give me the details of that case, I will most certainly take it up with the diocesan education officer. Children in Church schools come from a wide variety of family backgrounds, and teachers offer the same compassion and care for all. Each child is valued as a child of God and deserving of the very best that schools can offer. I would not expect any Church school to discriminate against any child, whatever their personal or family circumstances. If any right hon. or hon. Member comes across any instance where he feels that a Church school is in any way falling short of the standards that this House would expect, I hope they will get in touch with me.
This led to a number of reports in the media of the underlying incident in Devon:
Church of England Newspaper Dean’s surprise as gay couple are banned from worship
BBC Exeter church in ‘gay couple worship ban’
Western Morning News Gay Christians ‘not welcome in West church’
Update
The Diocese of Exeter issued the following statement earlier this week:
46 CommentsPhilip Mantell, director of education for the Diocese of Exeter: “All our church schools work to serve the needs of all children and families in their communities and we recognize that families are very varied and we want all children to feel comfortable and flourish.
We fully support and uphold the Archbishop of Canterbury’s recent statement on church schools addressing homophobia.
We have contacted Ben Bradshaw’s office to ask for details of the case to which he referred but have yet to hear back.”
The think tank, ResPublica, has published a report, authored by Philip Blond and James Noyes, entitled Holistic Mission: Social action and the Church of England.
The report itself can be downloaded as a PDF file.
The survey data it uses can also be downloaded from the Research by Design website.
The press release from ResPublica is here. The report makes the following recommendations:
The House of Lords completed Report stage on the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill on Wednesday.
For a report on the Monday session, go here.
The Hansard record of yesterday’s debate begins here, and continues here.
The name index is here. The PDF file for the day is here.
The Bishop of Leicester introduced Amendment 95, designed to amend the Education Act 1996, and the debate on this starts here. In the end, he withdrew the amendment.
Updates
David Pocklington’s analysis of the day can be found here.
12 CommentsQuestion 65 Rachel Jepson to the Chair of the Board of Education
What progress has been made by the Board on developing recommended policies and staff-training materials relating to the bullying of LGBT people, and have any recommendations of the Board in those respects been implemented in any Church of England schools?
Answer from the Bishop of Oxford
The Board of Education/National Society, and indeed all Diocesan Boards of Education, are clear that any form of bullying is unacceptable in Church of England schools. If the Board became aware that existing tried and tested materials for both staff training and pupil activities were proving inadequate in developing relationships of respect and acceptance for all, the Board would take advice from the schools to determine appropriate action.
Question 66 Robin Hall
How many incidents of homophobic bullying were recorded in Church of England schools in the last school year (or the most recent school year for which statistics are available)?
Answer
No national or even diocesan figures are collected.
—-
Earlier in the day, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in his Presidential Address had said this:
11 Comments…The majority of the population rightly detests homophobic behaviour or anything that looks like it. And sometimes they look at us and see what they don’t like. I don’t like saying that. I’ve resisted that thought. But in that debate I heard it, and I could not walk away from it. We all know that it is utterly horrifying. to hear, as we did this week, of gay people executed in Iran for being gay, or equivalents elsewhere. With nearly a million children educated in our schools we not only must demonstrate a profound commitment to stamp out such stereotyping and bullying; but we must also take action. We are therefore developing a programme for use in our schools, taking the best advice we can find anywhere, that specifically targets such bullying. More than that, we need also to ensure that what we do and say in this Synod, as we debate these issues, demonstrates above all the lavish love of God to all of us, who are all without exception sinners. Again this requires radical and prophetic words which lavish gracious truth…
press release from Forward in Faith
WOMEN BISHOPS: FORWARD IN FAITH RESPONDS TO JULY 2013 GENERAL SYNOD DEBATE
Forward in Faith thanks the many members of the Catholic Group in General Synod, together with other supporters, for their excellent contributions to yesterday’s debate.
Naturally, we are very disappointed that none of the amendments which would have ensured secure provision for those unable to receive the ministry of women as bishops and priests was passed. However, we are encouraged by the significant minorities, especially in the House of Laity, which did vote for such provision. We are confident that these votes, and the commitment which they represent on the part of many to a genuinely inclusive Church of England, in which all may flourish, will not be overlooked as the process moves forward. The alternative, which we would deeply regret, would be to pursue unsatisfactory legislation, lacking the necessary breadth of support, with the strong risk of ultimate defeat.
More detailed comments are set out below.
We welcome the commitment to continuing the facilitated conversations.
We welcome the widespread affirmation of the five points endorsed by the House of Bishops (GS 1886, para. 12), and trust that the draft legislation will embody and reflect all of them together.
We welcome the fact that 49% of the Synod voted for provisions to reduce the risk of legal challenge in the context of parochial appointments, and the resulting commitment to further work on this.
We strongly welcome the proposal, endorsed by many speakers (including the Archbishop of Canterbury) that the Steering Committee should be representative of a broad spectrum of opinion, and should draft legislation to which all can subscribe.
We also welcome the strong support of a very large minority of Synod members for legislation setting out rights and obligations that would create a clear and stable context for our future life together. We note the preference expressed by 40% of the House of Laity and over 30% of the Synod as a whole for provision to be made by Measure or by regulations under Canon.
In later votes even larger minorities, especially in the House of Laity, rejected key elements of the approach preferred by the House of Bishops and by the most uncompromising supporters of women bishops. In the end, 25% of the Synod declined to endorse even the drafting of legislation on that basis. The logical conclusion is that to do so would result in a repeat of last November’s failure.
We feel bound to reiterate that, while we are not trying to prevent women from becoming bishops in the Church of England, we cannot support any legislation which removes the existing rights of the laity to a ministry that they can receive in good conscience and which fails to offer the minority what the working group termed ‘a greater sense of security’ than the previous draft Measure.
We are unconvinced as to how a ‘mandatory grievance procedure’ binding on bishops can deliver this in respect of parochial appointments by lay patrons and incumbents. We question whether replacing Resolutions A and B with this is the right way of going about the rebuilding of trust.
We remain committed to playing our full part in identifying a consensus that will command the necessary breadth of support to enable those who wish to receive the ministry of female bishops to do so in the near future. We hope and pray that further facilitated conversations and a more broadly-based Steering Committee will achieve this.
+ JONATHAN FULHAM
The Rt Revd Jonathan Baker, Bishop of Fulham Chairman
LINDSAY NEWCOMBE
Dr Lindsay Newcombe Vice-Chairman
9 July 2013
Updated again
The Hansard record of Monday’s debate starts here and continues over here. There is a PDF file for the whole day here.
An index showing individual speakers is available. Interventions by bishops:
Bishop of Chester: here, and also here and then here. Then later here and again here.
Debate continues on Wednesday and there is a new list of marshalled amendments available.
And a further revised amendment is here.
Update
David Pocklington’s summary of the proceedings is here.
1 CommentQ 46 Joanna Monckton to ask the Chairman of the House of Bishops
As the Church of England is “episcopally led and synodically governed”, why did the House of Bishops not consult with the House of Laity and the House of Clergy before declaring that priests in civil partnerships who live in accordance with the Church’s teaching on human sexuality could henceforth be considered for episcopal appointment, as reported in the statement issued on 4 January 2013?
Answer from the Bishop of Gloucester on behalf of the House of Bishops’ Working Group on Sexuality
The House of Bishops issued its 2005 pastoral statement without prior consultation of the other two Houses and adopted a similar approach when clarifying one implication of it last December.
Q 47 Simon Butler
In the recent debates on same-sex marriage in the House of Lords, Lords Spiritual have spoken of the bishops’ historic and present support for the legislation enacting Civil Partnerships. In preparation for the forthcoming debate in Synod on Mr John Ward’s Private Member’s Motion on the registration of Civil Partnerships will the House of Bishops:
(a) take time to consider how best that support can be shown in the life of the church; and
(b) during the course of that forthcoming debate report to this Synod its conclusions?
Answer from the Bishop of Gloucester
In principle, yes, though that assumes that the Business Committee will be willing to give the House time to think through the implications of the same sex marriage legislation and consider the recommendations of the Pilling report before that private member’s motion is scheduled for debate.
Q 48 Judith Maltby
The House of Bishops’ Advice to the Clergy (GS 1449B, 2002) on the re-marriage of divorced persons states “While it would be unreasonable to expect that the couple should not even have known each other during the former marriage(s), was the relationship between the applicants – so far as you can tell from the information made available to you – a direct cause of the breakdown of the former marriage?” What is the position of the House of Bishops on the conduct of marriages in church in cases in which one or both of the couple has a former civil partner still living?
Answer from the Bishop of Gloucester
The House has given no specific consideration to this issue.
6 CommentsQ 55 (Rod Thomas) to ask the Secretary General
Why does this decision of the House of Bishops in December 2012 in relation to civil partnerships and the episcopate necessitate the removal in GS Misc 1044 of all the relevant factors which can properly be taken into account by the CNC in considering episcopal appointments which previously appeared in paragraph 29 of GS Misc 992 (with the exception of the factor relating to the existence of a civil partnership)?
Answer from William Fittall
Paragraph 29 of the Legal Office note of December 2010 set out various factors that could in principle be taken into account given the terms of the Equality Act and the lack of clarity at that point over whether what was said in the 2005 pastoral statement about priests and deacons also applied to bishops. The clarity created by the December 2012 statement enabled the revised note to distinguish more sharply between the test relevant to assessing the suitability of a particular candidate – the new paragraph 29 – and the criterion for imposing a requirement about civil partnership in the circumstances of a particular appointment.
Q 56 (Giles Goddard)
Why are the practices of undertaking enquiries into candidates for the episcopate involved in marriage after divorce, and of seeking assurances from candidates to the episcopate in civil partnerships (as described in paragraphs 22 and 29 of GS Misc 1044 respectively) not routinely extended to all candidates, to avoid even the slightest appearance of discriminatory treatment?
Answer from William Fittall
The enquiries made in the event of a marriage after divorce or marriage to someone with a surviving spouse are akin to those made under the Canon C4 faculty procedure. They are essentially to enable the Archbishop of the province to determine that there are no issues from the breakdown of the previous marriage that might constitute an obstacle to episcopal appointment. In relation to civil partnership the test is of a different character namely whether someone’s conduct is and will remain consistent with the teaching of the Church of England. To avoid the appearance of discrimination that assurance is in fact now sought in relation to all candidates for episcopal appointment.
3 CommentsAlthough there were several Questions on this topic, none were reached in the course of Friday evening’s General Synod session. The prepared Answers were however made public and may be of interest to readers. So they will be published here in a series of posts over the next day or so, starting with this pair.
Q 44. (Clare Herbert) to Chair of House of Bishops
In the light of the high regard expressed for Civil Partnerships by both archbishops and other bishops recently, such as when the Archbishop of Canterbury said in the House of Lords “It is clearly essential that stable and faithful same-sex relationships should, where those involved want it, be recognised and supported with as much dignity and the same legal effect as marriage” when will the Liturgical Commission be tasked by the House of Bishops to begin work on an authorized rite for the blessing of civil partnerships for the use of those clergy who wish to conduct such services?
and
Q 45 (David Brindley)
In view of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s view expressed in the House of Lords in a speech on 3 June that faithful same-sex relationships should be ‘recognised and supported with as much dignity and the same legal effect as marriage’, when will the House ask the Liturgical Commission to produce proposals for appropriate liturgical recognition of those relationships?
Answer from The Bishop of Gloucester
The House of Bishops concluded in December that it didn’t at that point want to revise its 2005 pastoral statement on civil partnerships, which, among other things, had affirmed that clergy ‘should not provide services of blessing for those who register a civil partnership.’ That was because the Pilling report which the House is due to receive this December and the Same Sex Marriage Bill, which had only just been published then, were going to require us to do some more careful thinking before we said anything further.
The context in which we minister is changing very quickly not least with the real possibility that the number of people entering civil partnership will fall very sharply next year once same sex marriages become a legal possibility. The House will be considering the implications of all this very carefully but there is nothing further that I can usefully say at this stage.
11 CommentsArchbishop Eliud Wabukala, Primate of Kenya, has published a July message, in preparation for the forthcoming second GAFCON conference in Nairobi in October. The message includes the following:
While we give thanks for much that has been achieved, especially in the emergence of the Anglican Church of North America and our Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, we are painfully aware that the Episcopal Church of the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada continue to promote a false gospel and yet both are still received as in good standing by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Furthermore, the Church of England itself, the historic mother church of the Communion, seems to be advancing along the same path. While defending marriage, both the Archbishops of York and Canterbury appeared at the same time to approve of same-sex Civil Partnerships during parliamentary debates on the UK’s ‘gay marriage’ legislation, in contradiction to the historic biblical teaching on human sexuality reaffirmed by the 1998 Lambeth Conference.
An earlier attack from Archbishop Wabukala, also related to Civil Partnerships, was here.
16 CommentsFrank Cranmer has performed a detailed analysis of the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill which you can read here. His commentary includes comparisons with the English and Welsh bill currently in the House of Lords.
He also draws attention to the points which Kelvin Holdsworth has raised in 10 Unanswered Questions about Same-Sex Marriage which are of particular interest to those in the Scottish Episcopal Church. Similar questions may also apply to members of the Church of England and the Church in Wales, in due course, but it seems very likely that the answers will not be the same as in Scotland.
0 CommentsUpdated again Saturday morning
The Report stage in the House of Lords for the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill starts on Monday 8 July and completes on Wednesday 10 July. (The General Synod meeting will be considering Women in the Episcopate on Monday.)
The current revised marshalled list of amendments is available here. Those in the name of Baroness Stowell are Government amendments. Of the 136 amendments listed, there is only one in the name of a Bishop (Leicester, amendment 95, details below the fold).
The most recent text of the bill to which the amendments are proposed is available here, and in PDF format here.
0 CommentsThe Faith in Research Conference 2013 took place on 20 June. This is one in a series of annual conferences organised by the Research & Statistics Department, Church House and the Oxford Centre for Ecclesiology & Practical Theology.
The programme for the conference can be found here (PDF).
The slides used by Professor Linda Woodhead in her keynote presentation are available here as a PowerPoint file. She described these on Twitter thus:
Click on my name for unpopular presentation to Church House – new stats showing the depth of crisis for the CofE
44 CommentsI show that there's a 'values gap' between where most Anglicans are and where the Church is
Frank Cranmer reports that:
On 24 June the EU Council of Ministers adopted new Guidelines on promotion and protection of freedom of religion or belief in EU external action and human rights policy. The guidelines are based on the principles of equality, non-discrimination and universality and are intended to provide practical guidance to officials of the EU and Member States in their relations with third countries and with international and civil society organisations. The guidelines go further than the previous Council conclusions on freedom of religion or belief which were adopted under the Swedish Presidency in 2009 and take into account most of the text adopted by the European Parliament on 13 June; but they are not as detailed as the EP text in relation to monitoring and assessment requirements.
Today, the Church of England issued a press release that the Bishop [of Derby] welcomes EU guidelines on freedom of religion.
Frank Cranmer’s post gives some detail on what is in these guidelines and how they developed from earlier EU documents. He notes that they were also welcomed by the Church and Society Commission of the Conference of European Churches and with some reservations also by the Commission of the [Roman Catholic] Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community.
The full text of the guidelines is here: EU Guidelines on the promotion and protection of freedom of religion or belief (PDF).
The official report of the meeting summarised this item as follows:
The Council adopted EU guidelines on the promotion and protection of freedom of religion or belief. While the EU is not aligned with any specific religion or belief, the guidelines reflect the EU’s determination to promote, in its external human rights policy, freedom of religion or belief as a right to be exercised by everyone everywhere.
At the same time the EU Council of Ministers adopted another set of guidelines: Guidelines to promote and protect the enjoyment of all human rights by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons (PDF)
The official report summary reads:
The Council adopted guidelines on the promotion and protection of all human rights of LGBTI persons, on the basis of existing international legal standards in this area. The guidelines are intended to enable the EU to proactively promote the human rights of LGBTI persons, to better understand and combat any structural discrimination they might face and to react to violations of their human rights.
The European Parliament’s Intergroup on LGBT Rights reported: EU foreign affairs ministers adopt ground-breaking global LGBTI policy:
Today the EU’s 27 foreign affairs ministers adopted a ground-breaking global policy. The LGBTI Guidelines instruct EU diplomats around the globe to defend the human rights of LGBTI people.
The Council of the European Union, the body that represents the 27 national governments in the EU, had already adopted a non-binding toolkit to promote LGBT people’s human rights in June 2010.
Three years later, foreign affairs ministers have now upgraded the document to these new Guidelines to promote and protect the enjoyment of all human rights by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons…
If I find any endorsements of these latter guidelines from religious organisations, I will let you know. So far I can find no mention of them from religious sources.
0 CommentsThe Scottish Government has today introduced a bill into the Scottish Parliament. This follows two consultations.
Consultation reports are linked from this page.
The draft bill, explanatory notes, a policy memorandum, and a delegated powers memorandum can all be found here.
Other associated documents are linked on this page.
Of particular interest outside Scotland, there is this statement agreed with the UK Government about amendments to the Equality Act 2010. The statement itself is available as a PDF file.
11 CommentsUpdated
The Supreme Court of the United States today issued two decisions relating to the marriage of same sex couples. The Guardian summarised it this way:
A landmark supreme court ruling struck down a controversial federal law that discriminated against gay couples in the US, delivering a stunning victory on Wednesday to campaigners who fought for years to overturn it.
The court also dismissed a separate appeal against same-sex marriage laws in California, restoring the right to gay marriage in the largest US state and nearly doubling the number of Americans living in states where gay marriage would be legal.
Together, the two rulings mark the biggest advance in civil liberties for gay people in a generation, and come amid growing political and international recognition that same-sex couples deserve equal legal treatment…
The Federal DOMA opinion is here. The California Proposition 8 opinion is here.
Numerous statements in response were made by bishops of The Episcopal Church and other senior church officials. Here are some links:
Update
Church leaders outside The Episcopal Church expressed contrary views:
27 CommentsReform Media Statement June 25th 2013: Reform appoints Susie Leafe as its first Director
44 CommentsThe chairman of the Anglican evangelical campaigning network Reform today announced the appointment of Reform’s first full-time director, Mrs Susie Leafe.
Speaking at its annual prayer meeting at St Botolph’s Church, London, today (25th June) Prebendary Rod Thomas made the announcement and led the expected 150-strong gathering in prayer as he commissioned Susie Leafe for the work.
Susie Leafe is a member of the General Synod and played a prominent role in the debate on women bishops. Organising a campaign under the banner ‘Proper Provision’, Mrs Leafe gave voice to over 2000 female lay members of the Church of England who believed that the now failed legislative proposals on women bishops did not make adequate provision for those who had theological objections to this development. Prebendary Rod Thomas said ‘This appointment marks a new step forward for Reform. There has never been a greater need for the Church of England to proclaim and explain the gospel, yet in many respects it is ill-equipped to do so. Reform needs to engage many more people in its work to change that situation and I am delighted that Susie is going to be directing our effort to make that possible. She has very considerable theological, organizational and communication gifts from which our network, and the wider church, will benefit hugely…’
Amnesty International has published a report: Making love a crime: Criminalization of same-sex conduct in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Thirty-eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa have laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual conduct. Underpinning these laws are deeply entrenched discriminatory social attitudes. This report examines the effects of the criminalization laws on, and discriminatory social attitudes towards, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people. Amnesty International is urging governments to repeal laws criminalizing consensual same-sex conduct and to enact and enforce laws protecting LGBTI individuals from discrimination, harassment and violence, in accordance with their obligations under international law.
The full report is available as a PDF here.
There is also this press release: Rising levels of homophobia in sub-Saharan Africa are dangerous and must be tackled, says Amnesty in new report
Homophobic attacks and harassment across sub-Saharan Africa are reaching dangerous levels, Amnesty International warned in a new report out today.
Making Love a Crime: Criminalisation of same-sex conduct in sub-Saharan Africa looks at how “homosexual acts” are being increasingly criminalised across Africa as a number of governments seek to impose draconian penalties or broaden the scope of existing laws, including by introducing the death penalty.
Widney Brown, Amnesty International’s director of Law and Policy, said:
“These attacks – sometimes deadly – must be stopped. No one should be beaten or killed because of who they are attracted to or intimately involved with.
“In too many cases these attacks on individuals and groups are being fuelled by key politicians and religious leaders who should be using their position to fight discrimination and promote equality.”
Homosexuality, often characterised as “unnatural carnal acts” or “acts against the order of nature”, is currently a crime in 38 countries in Africa.
In the last five years South Sudan and Burundi have introduced new laws criminalising same-sex sexual conduct. Uganda, Liberia and Nigeria all currently have Bills seeking to increase existing penalties pending before Parliament.
The report reviews the current state of legal provisions across the continent and how these laws adversely affect LGBTI Africans. Individuals interviewed by Amnesty spoke of their daily struggle to survive discrimination and threats. The report contains specific cases from Uganda, Kenya, South Africa and Cameroon…
And there is this fact sheet.
3 Comments