Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi and the proposal for the affirmation of same sex relationships by the Church of England

Jul 27, 2016 by Andrew Symes

By Martin Davie, Reflections of an Anglican Theologian.

[…] The 2013 Report of the House of Bishops Working Group on human sexuality (the ‘Pilling’ report) had as one of its ‘findings and recommendations’ that ‘there can be circumstances where a priest, with the agreement of the relevant PCC, should be free to mark the formation of permanent same-sex relationship in a public service.’

Now that its shared conversations of human sexuality have come to an end one of the ideas that is being floated as a way forward for the Church of England is the implementation of this recommendation by allowing services of ‘blessing’ or ‘welcome’ for same sex couples who are in Civil Partnership or same-sex civil ‘marriage.’

For example, in an article entitled ‘Battle looms in Church of England over ‘blessings’ for gay marriage’ published in Christian Today on 4 July 2016 Ruth Gledhill writes: ‘There is unlikely to be any attempt to change the definition of marriage. However, progressives are hoping for a move towards allowing church services of recognition for civil partnerships and same-sex marriages. Calling such services ‘blessings’ would be problematic but they could be given another name such as ‘services of welcome.’

There are two forms which the implementation of the Pilling recommendation might take. One would involve the provision of an agreed form of liturgy for clergy who wish to use it and the other would simply give permission to individuals and groups to develop their own liturgies for this purpose. However, what both have in common is that they would mean that the Church of England would be happy for its clergy to offer a public liturgical affirmation of same-sex relationships (including same-sex ‘marriages’). This in turn would violate the principle of lex orandi, lex credendi.

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