Where next on same-sex marriage?

Posted on December 11, 2016 
Filed under Culture wars, Resources

Lee Gatiss, Church SocietyChurch Society has published online an article by Director, Lee Gatiss. It will be printed in the Winter 2017 edition of Crossway.

Entitled “Where next on same-sex marriage?”, it focusses on the situation in the Church of England, though with reference to the wider Anglican Communion

“So, we have completed more than two years of ‘facilitated’ or ‘shared conversations’ about sexuality issues in the Church of England. This was encouraged by the Pilling Report a few years ago, as the way forward on this issue. But what happens now that the conversations have ended? And what, if anything, should be done?

There are various potential options for the future of the Church on this subject. Some have listed only the different ways in which so-called ‘traditionalists’ might be hived off into a ‘safe space’, or leave the Church altogether once the liberal triumph is complete. But it is far from inevitable or desirable for that to be the outcome.

Others have seen the options as merely extremes: adopt gay marriage or stay as we are; with a third way (’pastoral accommodation’ of prayers for same-sex couples, but no change in doctrine) seen as a nice compromise in the middle. But this is tendentious: there are far more options than merely these three, and no-one is happy with the status quo.

In the article linked to below, from the forthcoming issue off our magazine Crossway, I explore in more detail 6 possible ways forward. So explore with me what those might be …”

– Read it all here.