Church Head Reaffirms Opposition to Gay Rights Bill

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor has issued a statement of opposition to the Sexual Orientation Regulations (SORs) on behalf of the standing committee of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.

|PIC1|The House of Commons approved the draft Equality Act Regulations 2007 (SORs) last night by 310 to 100 votes. The regulations will make it illegal for businesses and services to discriminate against homosexuals, and makes no exception for faith-based organisations on grounds of conscience.

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor said ahead of last night's vote: "I again express our concern at their impact, not only on adoption services, but on cooperation between faith-based voluntary agencies and public authorities in public funded services."

He went on to question the process by which the legislation was being passed through Parliament.

"It is, surely, an abuse of parliamentary democracy that these regulations are being considered by Parliament only through a hurriedly arranged and very brief meeting of 16 appointed MPs, and a short debate in the House of Lords.

"During the House of Commons Committee meeting opportunity for serious debate was denied," he said.

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor said that "profound public concern" about aspects of the regulations had not been heard.

"The debate on Wednesday in the House of Lords, although important in itself, will hardly compensate for the lack of a full debate in the House of Commons.

"Our society's understanding of the pattern of family life and of the role of conscience and religious belief in public life remains a very important part of the political agenda," he said.

The Lawyers' Christian Fellowship (LCF) also criticised last night's debate, which was moved by the Government from its original midday Wednesday slot to 8pm last night.

"It is unlikely that many MPs will be around at this time, and so again, it looks like the SORs will be passed by the House of Commons in undemocratic proceedings," said the LCF on Monday.

The LCF is calling on Christians to join in a prayer rally outside Parliament on Wednesday night while peers in the House of Lords take the final vote on the regulations.

"We pray for a miracle next Wednesday," the LCF said. "However, whatever the outcome it is vital that history records Christians standing for truth to the very end of the parliamentary process."

In a letter to The Times, meanwhile, the Ven Norman Russell, Prolocutor of the Convocation of Canterbury and Archdeacon of Berkshire, and the Rev Canon Glyn Webster, Prolocutor of the Convocation of York and Canon Chancellor of York Minster, criticised the lack of democratic debate on the regulations.

"The House of Lords has an opportunity on Wednesday to address the democratic deficit and insist that these matters of policy are put in a bill by rejecting regulations which they can neither amend nor debate fully," they said.

A letter signed by forty-two lay members of the Church of England's General Synod has been sent, meanwhile, to bishops urging them to make a show on Wednesday and vote against the regulations. The letter was sent after only four bishops turned up at the House of Lords to vote last week against proposals to make the House of Lords democratically elected.

Welcoming the "spirited defence" of the role of bishops in the House of Lords by the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Chelmsford, the letter said, however, "Important substance would be given to their words if all the bishops in the Lords were to attend to vote."