Priest in Diocese of Ely gives Same-sex Blessings to Couple
By Alice Goodman, Prospect Magazine. (editor’s note: this article describing a service of ‘blessing’ of a same-sex marriage is written by the priest herself. She has acted against the authority of the bishops and effectively denied the doctrine of the Church of England – will we see any action by her bishop?)
Last March, I sat down with two of my parishioners to plan the service to bless their union. Their marriage, actually: they’d been married about four and a half years at that point. The General Synod of the Church of England had finally—after years of foot-dragging and stalling, kicking the can down the road and reflecting in small groups about questions of “Living in Love and Faith”—agreed to approve prayers to be used in churches to acknowledge the presence of God’s love in the relationships of people of the same sex. Gay Marriage Blessings, in other words, though one was warned not to use the words “marriage” or “blessing” in relation to the word “gay” unless there was a “no” or a “not” in the sentence. This, remember, is 10 years after the passing of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act of 2013 and 19 years after the Civil Partnerships Act of 2004.
By October we should be able to bless you, I said. “Make it towards the end of October, and we can have it on our fifth anniversary,” they replied. So they chose the music and readings, invited their friends and families, and began to plan the party.
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