Should civil marriages between people of the same sex be blessed or not? The Church of England displayed the deep divisions that run through Anglican worship on Wednesday during a debate on a softening of its position on these unions.
After almost six years of consultation on the subject, the Church of England announced last month that it would not allow same-sex marriages.
On the other hand, it intends to offer them a blessing of their union or their civil marriage, an offer which satisfies neither the supporters of religious homosexual marriages, nor their opponents within the institution.
Gathered in general synod in London, the elected body which meets two or three times a year to decide on questions of doctrine and policy, its nearly 500 members fiercely discussed this proposal on Wednesday, on which they will vote on Thursday.
The debate comes after years of mounting political pressure on the Anglican Church to reform its approach to same-sex marriage, legalized in England in 2013.
The Anglican Church, dominant in the United Kingdom under the aegis of the Church of England whose monarch — Charles III — is the supreme governor, brings together 85 million believers in the world and is also present in many countries, especially some from sub-Saharan Africa where homosexuality is still considered a crime.
The rector of the Evangelical Church of Oxford, Vaughan Roberts, thus implored the synod to reject the reform.
“I believe that this approach will not keep us united, and on the contrary will only bring more division”, he argued.
“Many of us will not be able to accept (this proposal) and will be forced to distance ourselves from those” who will support it, he added.
“I support (this proposal), which is the fruit of extensive work carried out over the past six years” having relied on “Scriptures, tradition and reason”, conversely defended the Archbishop of Canterbury , Justin Welby, spiritual leader of the Church of England.
His position is hotly contested within the Church, particularly outside the UK, where some congregations often take a tougher stance on the LGBT+ community.
“We believe that the responsibility of the Church of England is to serve the nation by reciting the Gospel, not to compromise with the dominant culture”, had denounced before the synod the very conservative Evangelical Council of the Church of England. ‘England.
On Wednesday, Justin Welby denied being “under the control of a culture.” And at the opening of the synod on Monday, he had called on its members not to fall “into caricature”.
Apologies
“Too many people, particularly around sexuality, have heard words of rejection,” he added, as last month the Church of England also apologized to LGBT+ people for the attitude ” hostile and homophobic” with which they may have been confronted in certain parishes.
But the whole of this approach leaves some defenders of the LGBT + community skeptical.
Synod member and LGBT+ activist Jayne Ozanne called the church’s apology “empty words”.
“We have heard excuses for years from our bishops, but no action,” she told AFP ahead of the meeting.
Even though the proposal being debated on Wednesday is not intended to change Church of England law and therefore does not require a formal vote to approve it, synod members must vote on a supporting motion and possible amendments. .
And a rejection would make the proposed same-sex union blessings nearly impossible to implement.
The Church of England, while generally more liberal, is not the only Christian church to face tensions over this issue.
Within the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has created controversy by adopting a relatively liberal position on homosexuality, judging that those who criminalize it were “wrong”.
But it does not deviate from the line of Catholic teaching on marriage, defined as the union between a man and a woman for the purpose of procreation and in 2021 the Vatican reaffirmed that it considers the practice of homosexuality as “a sin”.