Church in Wales enshrines same-sex blessings and moves towards same-sex weddings

A rite for same-sex blessings has been added to the Canons of the Church in Wales, with plans for same-sex wedding ceremonies also in the pipeline.

The amendment to the denomination’s liturgy was backed by all five Church in Wales bishops. Clergy members of the Governing Body voted 32 to 7 in favour, with five abstentions. Laity members backed the move by 48 to 8, with two abstentions.

Last year, Cherry Vann — a woman in a same-sex civil partnership — was enthroned as the Archbishop of Wales.

Service plan

Following a five-year trial of blessing couples in a same-sex marriage or civil partnership, the new liturgy is set to come into force on 1 July 2026.

The approved order of service provides for prayers, Bible readings, hymns, the exchange of promises, the blessing of rings, and the presentation of an “appropriately worded certificate”.

Cherry Vann welcomed the decision and claimed that the Bench of Bishops was committed to building “a church that can make space for each other whatever our different perspectives”.

The church’s official website stated that further proposals to perform same-sex marriages “will duly be brought forward in April 2027”.

Biblical blueprint

The Archdeacon of St Asaph, the Venerable Andy Grimwood, told delegates at the gathering of the Governing Body in Llandudno that Anglicans overseas who “uphold the traditional position on sexuality” had been “pained to see what the Church in Wales is proposing”.

He feared that the shift would bring division and was saddened to “see friends and colleagues leave the church they love”.

Julia Schulz, a lay member in the Diocese of Bangor, said the new liturgy “looks like a marriage service in all but name” and that it marked a departure from the biblical “blueprint for what a Christian marriage is”.

Alternative leadership

In March, Global Anglicans — a movement of Evangelical Christians known as GAFCON — set up a council as an alternative to the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Following a meeting of the movement’s senior leaders in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, General Secretary Revd Paul Donison announced the formation of “new structures” to “meet the needs” of the majority of Anglicans around the world.

The organisation has been vocal in its criticism of the appointments of both Cherry Vann as Archbishop of Wales and Dame Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury.

When Vann was appointed, the Most Reverend Dr Laurent Mbanda, Chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council, 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.”

And of Dame Sarah, the organisation rejected her authority over the Anglican Communion due to her “unbiblical and revisionist teachings regarding marriage and sexual morality”.