ALL sexual intercourse must be “inside a committed relationship” — whether marriage or a civil partnership — the Archbishop of Canterbury said on a podcast this week.
During an episode of The Rest is Politics, recorded within the crypt of Lambeth Palace and published on Monday, one in every of the presenters, Alastair Campbell, returned to a matter that he had put to the Archbishop in an interview in 2017: “Is gay sex sinful?” He recalled that the Archbishop’s answer then had been: “I haven’t got answer,” and asked whether he now had a “higher answer”.
The Archbishop said that he did: “What the Archbishop of York and I and the Bishops, by a majority, certainly not unanimous, and the Church is deeply split over this — where we’ve come to is to say that every one sexual intercourse must be inside a committed relationship, and whether it’s straight or gay.
“In other words, we will not be giving up on the concept sex is inside marriage or civil partnership, or whether marriage is civil or religious, and that, due to this fact, we’ve got recommend a proposal that, where people have been through a civil partnership or a same-sex marriage, equal marriage, under the 2014 Act, they need to give you the chance to return along to a church and have a service of prayer and blessing for them of their lives together.”
In a reference to the Prayers of Love and Faith (PLF), he spoke of “a straightforward service of welcome and blessing, and even that has resulted in an infinite breakdown of relationships in a very sad way”.
Questions concerning the relationship of PLF to the Church’s teaching on sex in relationships, and whether or not they represent a departure from declared doctrine, have been one in every of the important thing areas of contention throughout the journey to their approval (News, 12 July).
A note on the legal position attached to the update on Living in Love and Faith, published with the General Synod papers in July, stated that the pastoral provision offered by PLF represented “a pastoral outworking for a time of uncertainty that respects the Church of England’s unchanged doctrine of marriage, including the points of that doctrine which might be concerned with sexual intimacy. On that basis, we’ve got concluded that making the PLF available for same-sex couples without there being an assumption as to their sexual relationships wouldn’t be contrary to the doctrine of the Church of England.”
YouTube/The Rest is PoliticsThe Archbishop of Canterbury on The Rest is Politics
It said that the PLF “affirm the products in same-sex relationships, including stability, faithfulness, exclusive, lifelong commitment etc.”. It also acknowledged that “many same-sex couples can be in lively sexual relationships”, and concluded that: “In thus far as making the PLF available for couples in an lively sexual relationship does involve any departure from doctrine, it nevertheless doesn’t involve a departure from doctrine ‘in any essential matter’, and that doing so is compatible with the relevant canonical requirements.”
The Archbishops’ comments echo those of other Bishops. During the February 2023 debate that led to a vote to welcome the Bishops’ proposals for providing prayers of blessing, the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, said: “The right context for sexual intimacy is inside lifelong, committed, and faithful relationships” (News, 17 February 2023). Conservative members of the General Synod have called for greater clarity from the bishops concerning the Church’s teaching on this matter (News, 14 July 2023).
In his answer to Mr Campbell, the Archbishop was keen to emphasize a desire to honour the consciences of conservative Anglicans: “Because of conscience, no priest or church must be compelled to have these services,” he said. “I feel, personally, it is a great distance from church same-sex marriage. But there isn’t any doubt that the Church is deeply, profoundly divided on this.
“For those that are conservative, I’m absolutely committed to them having a full and undoubted place within the Church of England.”
In a wide-ranging interview, the Archbishop talked about his own childhood, which had at times been “chaotic, very scary, sometimes violent”; his “terror” while condemning the Government’s Rwanda policy during an Easter sermon (News, 22 April 2022); his views on foreign policy; and his own struggles with mental ill-health.
“If I allowed myself to read my very own Twitter feed, that may not help me in any respect — actually, if would do a variety of harm,” he said. “I feel it when people say I’m the worst Archbishop in history. . . I’m aware that once I am depressed I get bad-tempered and so I actually have to spend time saying sorry to people.”
He also drew attention to recent signs of growth in attendance within the Church of England (News, 20 May).
