Church in Wales considers future of same-sex blessings

The Church in Wales has been urged to rethink its blessings of same-sex couples.

During a meeting of the church’s Governing Body, 27 of the 143 members raised their opinion without debating each other. After table discussion, members anonymously recorded their views to contribute to the Bench of Bishops’ October meeting, which will consider next steps.

In 2021, the denomination introduced a five-year trial of blessing couples in a same-sex marriage or civil partnership. When the liturgy expires next September, the Church in Wales can choose to abolish the current practice, make it permanent, or expand it to introduce same-sex weddings.

Decline

The Archdeacon of St Asaph, Venerable Andy Grimwood, said he was “grieved the Church in Wales is prepared to forsake its place in the Anglican Communion” where “over 75 per cent still uphold the particular tradition of marriage”.

Revd James Griffiths of Llandaff asked at “what cost” the Church in Wales is willing to push same-sex blessings, saying: “Every denomination that has done it has seen decline: 35 per cent in the US Episcopal Church; 29 in Canada, and 40 in the Scottish Episcopal Church.”

He added: “No growing Church has accepted same-sex marriage.”

Lesbian Archbishop

Last month, a woman in a same-sex civil partnership was appointed as the Archbishop of Wales.

Cherry Vann, who is the Bishop of Monmouth, describes herself as “openly lesbian”. She is also Patron of a pro-LGBT group that ‘welcomes and affirms’ people “of every gender identity and sexual orientation”.

The Most Reverend Dr Laurent Mbanda, Chairman of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) Primates Council, described the appointment of Vann as “a serious error” contrary to the Bible’s teaching on sexual ethics.

In an open letter, he said: “By celebrating this election and her immoral same-sex relationship, the Canterbury Communion has again bowed to worldly pressure that subverts God’s good word.”