Anglican Mainstream has urged the Government to reconsider the Civil Partnerships Act which came into force at the start of the month, with the first gay civil partnership ceremonies taking place across the country this week.

|TOP|Dr Philip Giddings and Canon Dr Chris Sugden of Anglican Mainstream told Christian Today in a joint statement: "Marriage is a God-given institution between a man and a woman in which children are born and nurtured so that human society may flourish. The Civil Partnership Act 2005 is both confusing and unjust. It is confusing because it obscures the vital distinction between same-sex relationships and marriage.

“The rights in law which the Act confers are designed to be the same as the rights which flow from marriage. Yet the government insists that a civil partnership is not marriage. Some people are understandably referring to these partnerships as 'marriage', but calling something marriage does not make it marriage as properly understood.”

Anglican Mainstream said the Act was unjust because it excludes siblings and close relatives who are not married and “yet should surely be eligible for the same rights”.

“By excluding close relatives the Act clearly identifies the rights it confers on same sex relationships with those consequent upon marriage,” said Dr Giddings and Canon Sugden. “Civil partnerships are thus a parody of the marriage relationship which is God’s provision for human flourishing.”

|QUOTE|The two men concluded: “The church cannot bless something that harms those we are in God's name seeking to help. The government would be wise to re-consider this unjust and confusing legislation.”

The Evangelical Council also warned Thursday of the negative consequences of the Civil Partnerships Act following the hundreds of gay civil partnership ceremonies that took place up and down the country.

The Chairman of the Church of England Evangelical Council, the Rev. Dr. Richard Turnbull, warned Christians in particular of the need to uphold the unique position of marriage between one man and one woman.

"We recognise, of course, the need for fair and equal treatment before the law for all people,” he told Christian Today. “However, Christians need to be very concerned indeed at the assertion of moral equivalence between marriage and civil partnerships. They are not of equal moral standing.”

He added that Christians have a unique role to teach others about the sanctity of the traditional family.

Rev. Turnbull said: “Christians must be clear, while acting with sensitivity and care, to assert the Christian teaching that celibate singleness or monogamous marriage are the ways in which God has provided for the best moral family framework for society. We depart from that at our peril both as a society and indeed as a church."

|AD|The first gay civil partnership ceremony to take part in the UK was in Belfast on Monday amid much protest from Catholic and Evangelical Christians, with the most high profile same-sex ceremony taking place between Elton John and long-term partner David Furnish on Wednesday.

The Bishop of Winchester, the Rt. Rev. Michael Scott-Joynt, said in a letter concerning the coming into effect of the new Act, that although it was right for the Government to seek to rectify injustices faced by people in same-sex relationships, this should not be “by replicating, as the Act does, for Civil Partnerships virtually every provision that in existing law applies to marriage”.

He said: To me the Civil Partnerships Act therefore undermines the distinctiveness and fundamental importance to society of marriage by effectively equating same-sex relationships with it - notwithstanding the Government's repeated assertions that this was not its intention, and that it was not legislating for "gay marriage".

The new civil partnerships law will give gay couples the same property and inheritance rights as married heterosexuals and entitles them to the same pension, immigration and tax benefits. However, unlike in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Canada it is not a marriage.

A statement released by the Evangelical Alliance in early December stated: “The Alliance believes there can never be moral equivalence between marriage and same-sex partnerships, even if legal equivalence is established.”

Don Horrocks, head of public affairs for the EAUK, said such a push for gay rights eventually takes away from the rights of those who may have a Christian perspective on marriage. He said, “It needs to be remembered that one group’s rights often involves another’s inequality.”

Another senior British clergyman has spoken out against the Civil Partnerships Act. Rev Peter Smith, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cardiff said, “What the Government should do in terms of public policy is support marriage rather than undermine it. To put beside marriage an alternative or what appears to be a perfectly approved legal alternative lifestyle I think does not help the institution of marriage at all.”