Under pressure from LGBTQ activists to publicly endorse homosexual marriage, the Church of England’s (CofE) Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, recently said that, although the church will not officiate at homosexual weddings, the behavior itself, when in the context of a “stable, loving, committed” relationship, is not necessarily sinful.
Since at least 2017, the CofE has been facing increasing pressure to simply accept the gay lifestyle in the church. When Cottrell was asked specifically if “gay sex in the context of a loving, committed lifelong relationship” was a sin, the archbishop clearly stated that, in the eyes of his church, it is not.
“Well, what we are saying is that physical and sexual intimacy belongs in committed, stable, faithful relationships and therefore where we see a committed, stable, faithful relationship between two people of the same sex, we are now in a position where those people can be welcomed fully into the life of the Church, on their terms,” he declared.
Pressed on whether gay sex was a “sin,” Cottrell said, “But well, that … that’s what I’m saying … we’re looking to focus on the good in relationships and we want people to live in good, stable, faithful relationships.”
While the CofE decided recently that it will not perform homosexual marriages, it recently declared that it would offer “prayers of dedication, thanksgiving or for God’s blessing.”
The announcement that the CofE will bless same-sex marriages would appear to signal a change in the church’s own theology, which states that marriage is “in its nature a union permanent and lifelong, for better for worse, till death them do part, of one man with one woman.”
If such unions are not a sin and are worthy of the church’s blessing, how long will it be until the archbishop and the rest of the church hierarchy declare that gay marriage, so called, will be allowed by the church? If it’s not a sin and it deserves a “blessing,” how can it not be OK to perform such “weddings”?
Asked whether the church was guilty of “sitting on the fence” as it pertains to “gay marriage,” the archbishop dodged and gave a very political answer:
Well, that’s not how I see it, no. I see it as a way of holding together a church which doesn’t agree on this issue and it takes us to a place where LGBTIQ+ people, people entering into same-sex marriages, people in civil partnerships are able to come to the Church of England and those relationships and marriages can be acknowledged and celebrated. People can receive God’s blessing, and that’s a good thing. Yes, of course there are people who want more, but as we’ve just heard, there are people who want a great deal less. So yeah, I think it’s something that, yeah, I think it’s a new place that we’re in.
Pope Francis also seems to be on board with the Anglican Church’s newfound LGBTQ liturgical stance, as last week he declared that “being homosexual isn’t a crime.” The leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics seemed to back off just a little, later saying, “It’s not a crime. Yes, but it’s a sin. Fine, but first let’s distinguish between a sin and a crime.”
Francis was apparently aiming at laws, which still exist in dozens of nations, that still consider sodomy a crime.
Some Christian groups were appalled with the CofE’s new stance on same-sex unions. Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern, an evangelical organization based in the U.K., said:
The role of the Archbishop of York is to lead in explaining God’s beautiful pattern for human life and relationships, not to preside over a convoluted process of compromise. Sadly, it has been a failure of leadership from the start by the Archbishop of Canterbury and York. For this they will answer to God, and we must pray for them. It is not loving or kind to hide the truth from the culture.
What we have needed for so long on these issues is spiritual leadership from the Church of England’s hierarchy. Sadly, however, what we have seen is a relentless and determined capitulation to the spirit of the age from the Archbishop of York, among others. The church and Christians are called to be distinct from the world around them and yet the Archbishop has shown he is ashamed of the clear teachings of Jesus Christ.
Indeed, the watering down of Christianity has been going on for some time now. Although Christians are supposed to set themselves apart from the world, Archbishop Cottrell and Pope Francis appear to be changing Christian doctrine in a bid to fit in with the rest of society.
