by Donna Birrell, Premier
Most Rev Justin Welby, former Archbishop of Canterbury has said he was “thick” not to recognise that faithful and committed same sex relationships are a “huge blessing”.
Speaking to the Cambridge Union, Most Rev Welby said “When they fall in love, and when they live out that love faithfully and with stability and caring for others, it is a huge blessing for them and for society; and I have seen that in so many places that, in the end, even I began to realise that I was being thick.”
Last year, the then archbishop caused controversy over the Church of England’s deeply divided stance on same-sex relationships. In an episode of podcast The Rest is Politics he said that all sexual activity should be within a committed relationship, whether it’s straight or gay: “In other words, we are not giving up on the idea that sex is within marriage or civil partnership, or whether marriage is civil or religious, and that, therefore, we have put forward a proposal that, where people have been through a civil partnership or a same-sex marriage, equal marriage, under the 2014 Act, they should be able to come along to a church and have a service of prayer and blessing for them in their lives together.”
He told the Cambridge Union last month that his stance on the issue had become more supportive during his time as archbishop.