Sandi Toksvig has said the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has agreed to meet with her after the Church of England opted to rule out permitting same-sex weddings in its churches.
After an exhaustive and years-long period of “reflection” over its policies on LGBT+ issues, on Wednesday the Church’s leadership announced it had opted to maintain its ban on same-sex couples marrying, even as Scottish and Welsh churches move towards permitting gay weddings.
Although the bishops did announce a move to relax rules around “blessings” for civil same-sex unions – previously permitted for livestock, farming equipment and warships, but not for gay couples – the outcome has sparked anger from LGBT+ Christians, who accused bishops of doing the bare minimum and failing to maintain the Church’s relevance in modern Britain.
Ms Toksvig, one of the nation’s best-known gay broadcasters, penned a letter to Mr Welby last year condemning a “shocking statement of exclusion” after he “affirmed the validity” of a 1998 declaration that gay sex is a sin.
In that letter, she invited Mr Welby for a coffee, which he accepted – and on Saturday, Toksvig revealed that the meeting will now happen in the days ahead in the wake of the Church’s decision.
She wrote: “Quick update – I will be meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury for a long-promised coffee next week.”
Mr Welby said earlier this week that he was “extremely joyful” at the Church’s move to allow blessings for same-sex couples getting married, but would not personally bless same-sex marriages “in order not to compromise that pastoral care” he felt he owes the global Anglican movement, which includes many churches in the Global South who fiercely oppose LGBT+ rights.
Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, the Church’s second-in-command, told BBC Sunday that he would take part in the blessing of same-sex marriages and insisted they were not “marriage-lite”.
He told Sunday: “I recognise the disappointment that it causes, and the anxiety to many people. It’s a human, but I think a godly way forward…. where there are differences between us.”
Asked if the decision was a “fudge”, he said: “That’s not where I see it, no. I see it as a way of holding together a Church that does not agree on this issue, and takes us to a place where people entering into same-sex marriages are able to come to the Church of England, and those relationships and marriages can be acknowledged and celebrated.
“Of course there are people who want more, but there are (also) people who want a great deal less. I think it’s a new place that we’re in.”
Mr Cottrell said he wanted to “emphasise the positives” and declined to specify whether the Church’s teaching remains that gay sex is a sin, adding: “Sexual intimacy belongs in committed, stable, faithful relationships. Where we see a committed, stable, faithful relationship between two people of the same sex, we’re now in a position where those people can be welcomed fully into the life of the church on their terms.”
He added that there will be pastoral guidance to “work out” what the new policy means for clergy, after a number of instances in which gay clergy members have been stripped of their permission to officiate because they have themselves entered into same-sex marriages. “I can’t give you exactly what [the new rules] will be right now,” he said.
LGBT+ Christian campaigner Jayne Ozanne said she was “anticipating a fudge but I didn’t think it would be this bad”.
She told Daybreak: “What we’re seeing is embedded discrimination continuing. I thought that we would get a conscience clause that we would be able to allow those clergy who want to marry us, and we know there are thousands who do, and indeed bishops, to be able to do that, and obviously for those who don’t want to do that, for them to act on their conscience and not do that.
“That to me would have been the right compromise, not these mealy-mouthed breadcrumbs of blessings, which aren’t even authorised blessings, they’re just a few prayers… I know for many they are now contemplating whether the Church of England is a place that they feel that they can have a home.”
Bishops attempted to apologise to the LGBT+ community in a letter on Friday for the Church’s history of anti-gay teachings.
“We have not loved you as God loves you, and that is profoundly wrong,” the bishops said in an open letter. “We affirm, publicly and unequivocally, that LGBTQI+ people are welcome and valued: we are all children of God.
“The occasions on which you have received a hostile and homophobic response in our churches are shameful and for this we repent.”
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