Bishop of Liverpool: Church of England should adopt “a gender-neutral marriage canon”

The Rt. Rev. Paul Bayes, Bishop of Liverpool, speaking Saturday to MOSAIC (“Movement of Supporting Anglicans for an Inclusive Church”):

I want to see a gender-neutral marriage canon, such as they have in the Episcopal Church or in the Scottish Episcopal Church. And as a necessary but not sufficient first step I want to see conscientious freedom for the Church’s ministers and local leaders to honour, recognise and, yes indeed, to bless same-sex unions whether civil partnerships or civil marriages.

I want to see an abolition of the foolishness that sees the call to ordained ministry as a call to a state morally higher than that of the baptised, as though baptism called us to a lesser holiness. I want to see an end to LGBTQ+ people hiding who they are for fear of being exposed to conversion therapy or to being forbidden to minister in churches. I want to see an end to the inquisition of ordinands about their private lives.

The Guardian has this report.

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