Same-sex marriage: Why some Churches are coping better than others
by Mark Woods, Christian Today:
For entirely coincidental reasons, the UK Church scene during the last few days has been dominated by the issue of same-sex marriage. The Methodist and United Reformed Churches (URC) have both taken significant decisions and the Church of England has gone into purdah at its York synod meeting while it tries to sort itself out.
Before all this, last month the General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church voted to remove the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman from the revelant canon. In May, the Church of Scotland decided to recognise ministers in same-sex marriages as well as civil partnerships (though they cannot register same-sex civil partnerships or solemnise same-sex marriages themselves; that will be discussed next year).
And in March the Baptist Union of Great Britain said that while it affirmed marriage as between one man and one woman, the decision was up to each church (though it “humbly urged” them not to marry same-sex couples). Ministers still can’t enter into same-sex marriages themselves.
It’s easy to conclude that the tide is running in a certain direction, and this may be true. However, the Church of England’s powerful evangelical and Anglo-Catholic wings between them may well derail moves in favour of same-sex marriage altogether, and the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches remain resolutely opposed. Furthermore, the UK’s vibrant independent and Pentecostal churches show no signs of budging on the issue, seeing it as a question of faithfulness to scripture. Despite the support of some senior evangelicals for an accepting position, evidenced in Jayne Ozanne’s book Journeys in Grace and Truth, in many quarters the dividing lines are as sharp as ever.
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