A response to the Pastoral letter from the Bishops of the Church in Wales
by Martin Davie:
The Bishops of the Church in Wales have now issued a ‘Pastoral Letter….to all the faithful concerning gay and lesbian Christians’ accompanied by two sets of prayers ‘that may be said with a couple following the Celebration of a Civil Partnership or Civil Marriage.’
What should we make of this letter from a theological perspective?
First, the reasons the bishops give for not changing the teaching of the Church in Wales in relation to marriage or permitting ‘the celebration of public liturgies of blessing for same sex unions’ are because a process of consultation has shown there is not the necessary support in the Church in Wales to do so and because to do so would be to go against the recent statement from the Primates of the Anglican Communion. These are good reasons, but they do not get to the theological heart of the matter.
The fundamental theological reason why the Church in Wales should not change its teaching and practice is because the Bible makes clear (Genesis 1-2, Mark 10:2-9) that God has created human beings as male and female and has created marriage as a lifelong exclusive relationship between one man and one woman and as the sole legitimate context for entering into sexual union.
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