The two most senior clergymen in the Church of England reaffirmed Tuesday that priests are banned from blessing gay unions, giving their first reaction to reports of a ceremony for two male priests at a London church.
The priests exchanged rings and vows in a service marked by a fanfare of trumpets and capped by a shower of confetti on May 31, the Sunday Telegraph reported last weekend.
The bishop of London, the Rt. Rev. Richard Chartres, has ordered an investigation.
"We have heard the reports of the recent service in St. Bartholomew the Great with very great concern," said a statement issued by the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and the archbishop of York, John Sentamu.
They said they could not comment on the specific ceremony, but noted that the church had laid down rules — most recently in 2005 after Britain legalized civil partnerships that give same-sex couples many of the legal benefits of marriage.
At that time, bishops declared that "clergy of the Church of England should not provide services of blessing for those who register a civil partnership."
"Those clergy who disagree with the church's teaching are at liberty to seek to persuade others within the church of the reasons why they believe, in the light of scripture, tradition and reason that it should be changed. But they are not at liberty simply to disregard it," the archbishops said.
The Rev. Martin Dudley, rector of St. Bartholomew's, has defended the ceremony that he presided over. "It is not we who have whipped up the whirlwind, replacing words of love and inclusion with those of hatred and exclusion," Dudley said in a statement posted on the Web site of New Statesman magazine.
"We set out to express, experimentally, pushing at boundaries, a love of a type which is not unusual or perverse but which is perfectly ordinary and accepted outside the church. Why, then, can it not be accepted inside the community that is based, not on law, but on the loving presence of God in Jesus Christ?"
The priests exchanged rings and vows in a service marked by a fanfare of trumpets and capped by a shower of confetti on May 31, the Sunday Telegraph reported last weekend.
The bishop of London, the Rt. Rev. Richard Chartres, has ordered an investigation.
"We have heard the reports of the recent service in St. Bartholomew the Great with very great concern," said a statement issued by the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and the archbishop of York, John Sentamu.
They said they could not comment on the specific ceremony, but noted that the church had laid down rules — most recently in 2005 after Britain legalized civil partnerships that give same-sex couples many of the legal benefits of marriage.
At that time, bishops declared that "clergy of the Church of England should not provide services of blessing for those who register a civil partnership."
"Those clergy who disagree with the church's teaching are at liberty to seek to persuade others within the church of the reasons why they believe, in the light of scripture, tradition and reason that it should be changed. But they are not at liberty simply to disregard it," the archbishops said.
The Rev. Martin Dudley, rector of St. Bartholomew's, has defended the ceremony that he presided over. "It is not we who have whipped up the whirlwind, replacing words of love and inclusion with those of hatred and exclusion," Dudley said in a statement posted on the Web site of New Statesman magazine.
"We set out to express, experimentally, pushing at boundaries, a love of a type which is not unusual or perverse but which is perfectly ordinary and accepted outside the church. Why, then, can it not be accepted inside the community that is based, not on law, but on the loving presence of God in Jesus Christ?"
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