Bishop of Oxford resists gay-marriage amendment
by Adam Beckett, Church Times:
Croft warns peers that external pressure could be counter-productive.
ANOTHER attempt to remove the exemption of the Church of England from same-sex marriage in churches was made in the House of Lords last week.
A similar attempt was made last month at the committee stage of the Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration etc.) Bill (News, 8 February).
Lord Faulkner, a Labour peer, attempted last Friday, with Lord Collins, to remove the exemption of members of the clergy from solemnising the marriage of a same-sex couple, but withdrew his amendment.
Lord Faulkner told peers that his amendment “says to the Church of England and the Church in Wales that Parliament will not stand in their way when they eventually get round to extending the right to marry in church to same-sex couples. . .
“You will know this is an extremely contentious issue in the Church of England at present. But I hope you will also be aware that there are very large numbers of clergy and lay people who are supportive of equal marriage, and would like to be able to conduct such marriages in our churches. As things stand, these views are not being represented by our current House of Bishops. . .
“I hope that, by debating this amendment today, this House will send a message to the Church of England and the Church in Wales — and to the Anglican Communion worldwide — that we in this House, at any rate, think it is time that they moved forward at rather more than the glacial speed we have seen so far. This amendment is intended to help them.”
Lord Collins said: “Certainly, since the Committee Stage of this Bill, I have received emails, some coming from the opposite camp in the Church of England. I did not realise that what I had been through [same-sex marriage] was an abomination, but apparently that is what it was, and no doubt that forms part of the debate in the Church of England.”
Responding on behalf of the Church, the Bishop of Oxford, Dr Steven Croft, resisted the amendment.
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