Church of England bishops have decided not to recommend to the February meeting of the General Synod that the Church should permit marriage services for gay couples. However gay married couples will be able to receive prayers and blessings, but not for the marriage itself. The 1991 document stating that gay priests in a same-sex relationship must be celibate will be withdrawn.
It all smacks of compromise. The Anglo-Catholic and conservative evangelical groups will be delighted that same-sex marriage is not to be authorised in the Church and possibly will accept very grudgingly the crumbs of comfort tossed by the bishops in the direction of the liberals and progressives, although I doubt it.
It is so desperately sad that the bishops have failed to provide strong leadership in favour of modernising the Church by moving it away from suffocating literalism and legalism. No wonder the Church continues to lose members and fails to attract young people.
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