Church of England May Allow Homosexual Clergy to Marry with Vow of Abstinence

As the Anglican Communion is dogged by the issue of homosexuality in the Church, a new proposal emerged through a meeting of senior bishops last week in England, which may fuel the fiery debate among conservatives and liberals.

According to the Times, the proposal suggested that homosexual clergy in the Church of England would be allowed to "marry" their partners, provided that they have given an assurance to their diocesan bishop that they will abstain from sex. A breach of the rules is expected to result in disciplinary action or the possible suspension of clergy.

The proceeding will be as follows; Those who intend to register a civil partnership would inform his or her bishop in a face-to-face meeting. They are then required give an undertaking to uphold the teaching of the Church of England, outlined in the 1991 document Issues in Human Sexuality. This paper prohibits sex for gay clergy.

This may see an attempt of the Church of England to uphold the church doctrine of forbidding clergy from sex except in a full marriage, said the Times.

The Church of England proposal is contained in a draft Pastoral Statement on Civil Partnerships, drawn up by Graham James, the Bishop of Norwich. It was discussed at length and provisionally agreed at a meeting last week at a hotel in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire.

A final draft with some amendments will be produced for approval by the House of Bishops, the upper house of the Church’s General Synod.

Under the Civil Partnership Bill which was passed by the British Parliament last year, civil unions between homosexual couples will be legalised in the UK. Starting from 5th December, gay couples in Britain will be able to notify a registery office of an intention to form the homosexual civil partnership. Moreover, the law entitles the applicants to tax and pension rights similar to that of married couples, which the homosexuals have long been fighting for.

Last week, it was announced that the first same-sex wedding in the UK is set for the 21st December in Brighton. A lesbian vicar Rev Debbie Gaston will marry her partner Elaine Cook in the wedding. Both of them have previous Baptist background but they are now in the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) which welcomes gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender worshippers. They honestly confessed that their sexual orientation has not been accepted by all church members and friends.

In the wake of the legalisation of same-sex marriage, mainline churches in the UK have been challenged by the worrying trend. The Anglican Church, which has already been stricken by the ordination of a homosexual bishop in its American counterpart, could be even more anxious in case the homosexual clergy would request for a formal marriage ceremony.

On the brink of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) meeting in Nottingham, England, on 21st June, the newly unveiled proposal has overshadowed the conference.

The ACC meets every three years in various part of the world. It consists of lay, clergy and Episcopal members and is a forum where all Anglican Provinces all over the world can share and exchange information and coordinate common actions. The upcoming meeting was said to be designed to heal rifts between liberals and conservatives over the homosexuality issue.

For the Methodist Church of the Great Britain, which has a 300,000-strong congregation, it will address the issue of same-sex marriages among the churches and the general public on next month’s annual general meeting.

The report to the Methodist Conference 2005 recommended a discussion "on how to respond to requests to conduct prayers or services of blessing for same-sex couples, particularly in the light of recent legislation on civil partnerships."