The Anglican Church will now bless same-sex couplesafter a historic vote within its General Synod which however did not change theopposition to performing gay marriages. The vote, with 250 in favor and 180 against the blessing of gay couples, came after a lively debate that lasted over eight hours and supported the compromise proposal presented by the bishops in an attempt to overcome deep internal divisions.
The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, pointed out that priests will also be able to choose not to bless gay couples: “No one will be required to do it and no one will be disadvantaged if they don’t.” The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, referred to the “painful” division on the subject within the Anglican church, and said he supported the proposal after a reflection on the basis of “scripture, tradition and reason”. “I can be wrong, of course-he added-but I can’t ignore the matter like everyone else”.
Along with supporting the blessings, the Synod has decided that the Church will apologize for the damage done to the LGBT community, and agreed to start reviewing the ban on pastors from engaging in civil gay marriages in the coming months. Welby and Cottrell expressed the hope that the decision marks “a new beginning” for the Anglican Church which “for the first time will publicly, unreservedly and joyfully welcome same-sex couples”.
Sarah Mullally, bishop of London, who led the debate acknowledged that the proposal “for some it does not go far enough and for others too much”, stating that she “prays because what we have decided now can be a step forward for all of us in the churchincluding members of the LGBT+ community”.
To underline the atmosphere in which this Synod is taking place, a statement was released yesterday stating that the Anglican Church is considering the possibility of replacing the masculine pronoun and the formula “Our Father” with a more neutral language on gender referring to God. “Christians have recognized since ancient times that God is neither male nor female”, reads the statement, which explains that a project on gender language will be launched this spring after years of studies by of theologians.
However, any change on the type of language and pronouns used will have to be sanctioned by the Synod within which there seems to be no consensus in this regard.