Church of England split over gay marriage may be unavoidable, admits Welby’s chief of staff

Jun 17, 2016 by Jill

by Harry Farley, Christian Today:

A split over gay marriage in the Church of England may be unavoidable, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s chief of staff admitted on Friday, despite desperate behind-the-scenes discussions to reconcile opposing factions.

The Church’s governing body will enter into secret talks next month in an effort to “change the tone of the debate” over teaching on same-sex relationships. But David Porter, who also heads up the discussions known as Shared Conversations, said they may fail to prevent a split.

“Shared Conversations should not be measured on its ability to stop a fracture,” he told journalists on Friday.

Porter said the history of the Church showed it did divide on difficult issues but it was about “how we fracture”. He insisted it was “too early” to say whether the Church would break apart and said he was concerned with the “nature of the conversation, not the outcome”.

At its July meeting, the CofE’s general synod will discuss issues of human sexuality in private sessions over three days. The 467 members of synod will discuss their views on sexuality in small groups of up to 20, each of which will have at least two bishops.

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