GAY rights campaign group Stonewall has welcomed a historic decision to allow same-sex marriages to be conducted within the Scottish Episcopal Church (SEC).
A proposal to amend canon law to permit clerics to conduct weddings for gay couples was backed yesterday at the annual meeting of the church’s General Synod in Edinburgh.
Under the terms of the vote, clergy who do not wish to preside over same-sex weddings will not be compelled to do so “against their conscience”.
The move makes the SEC the first branch of the Anglican faith in the UK to allow same-sex marriage.
Stonewall is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights charity. Colin Macfarlane, director of Stonewall Scotland, said: “We’re delighted by today’s news from the Scottish Episcopal Church.
“This step allows couples to celebrate their love within their faith and sends a really positive message to other LGBT people, both here and around the world. It signals that members of the church welcome, recognise and respect LGBT people as part of the faith community.”
Although equal rights campaigners were quick to welcome the decision, the secretary general of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon, said the vote puts the Scottish Episcopal Church at odds with the majority stance among churches within the organisation.
In approving the proposal, church members voted to remove the doctrinal clause which stated that marriage is a “union of one man and one woman”.
It was replaced with a “conscience clause” which states: “In the light of the fact that there are differing understandings of the nature of marriage in this church, no cleric of this church shall be obliged to conduct any marriage against their conscience.”
A two-thirds majority was required in each of the church’s houses – bishops, clergy and laity – for the measure to be accepted. The proposal was passed with 80 per cent support from the bishops and laity, while 67 per cent of the clergy backed the move.
A first reading of the motion to amend Canon 31 was passed by the General Synod in 2016 and it returned for its second and final reading this year.
Same-sex weddings could be held within the church by the autumn of this year, reports have suggested.
Responding to the vote, the Primus of the SEC, the Most Rev David Chillingworth, Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane, said: “This is a momentous step. By removing gender from our marriage canon, our church now affirms that a same-sex couple are not just married but are married in the sight of God. They can ‘leave and cleave’.
“They can express in marriage a commitment to lifelong faithfulness to one another and to the belief that a calling to marriage is for them too a calling to love, forgiveness, sacrifice, truth.
“A new chapter opens up – inc- lusion has taken a particular form.
“This same decision is difficult and hurtful for others whose integrity in faith tells them that this decision is unscriptural and profoundly wrong.
“For them, this new chapter will feel like an exclusion – as if their church has moved away from them.
“So, the journey which we now begin must also be a journey of reconciliation.”
Archbishop Idowu-Fearon said the churches of the Anglican Communion are free to make their own decisions on canon law, with the SEC being one of 38 provinces covering more than 165 countries around the world. “Today’s decision by the SEC to approve changes to canon law on marriage is not a surprise, given the outcome of the vote at its Synod a year ago,” he added.
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