CoE Rejects Call To Bless Same-Sex Marriage

Saying the gestures belongs only to heterosexual couple, the Church of England (CoE) has ruled out offering blessings to same-sex couples.

The announcement came in a report from the church's faith and order commission entitled Men and Women in Marriage, and follows a suggestion last week from the outgoing bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev James Jones, who said the church should consider blessing gay couples to, "bless true love wherever such love is found".

While the report recognises the existence of same-sex relationships, terming them "forms of human relationships which fall short of marriage in the form God has given us", it stresses the church's immutable definition of marriage as "a faithful, committed, permanent and legally sanctioned relationship between a man and a woman, central to the stability and health of human society".

Chairman of the commission, bishop of Coventry Dr Christopher Cocksworth, said that while the church is committed to providing "care, prayer and compassion" to those who cannot be married in church, he drew the line at blessings for gay couples.

"Whilst it is right that priests and church communities continue to seek to provide and devise pastoral care accommodation for those in such situations, the document is clear that public forms of blessing belong to marriage alone," he said.

(H/CD)