2023-12-17 21:29:02
In one of the first ceremonies, the Reverend Catherine Bond and the Reverend Jane Pearce had their union blessed at St John the Baptist Church, Felixstowe, eastern England, where both are priests associated.
The couple knelt before Canon Andrew Dotchin, who held their heads as he thanked them “for the love and friendship they share, and for the commitment to each other as they they appear before you on this day.”
The Church of England’s National Assembly voted in February to allow clergy to bless the unions of same-sex couples who have had a civil marriage or union. The words used for the blessings, known as prayers of love and faith, were approved by the church’s House of Bishops on Tuesday and used for the first time on Sunday.
The compromise was reached after five years of discussions about the Church’s position on sexuality. Church authorities apologized for the church’s failure to welcome LGBTQ people, but also endorsed the doctrine that marriage is the union of a man and a woman. Clergy will not be required to perform blessings for people of the same sex if they disagree with them.
Blessings can be used during regular church services. The church governing body has also drawn up a plan for separate “prayer and dedication services” for same-sex couples that would resemble weddings, but it has not yet been formally approved.
Public opinion polls consistently show that a majority of people in England support same-sex marriage, which has been legal since 2013. The Church did not change its teaching on marriage when the law changed.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has said he will not personally bless any same-sex couple because it is his job to unify the world’s 85 million Anglicans. Mr Welby is the spiritual leader of the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion of which it is a member.
Several Anglican bishops from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific said after the February ruling that they no longer recognized Archbishop Welby as their leader.
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