Church of England Bishops Head for Showdown on Marriage for Same-Sex Couples

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Archbishop of Kenya Eliud Wabukala, center left, and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, center right, during Welby's 2013 visit to Nairobi, Kenya. RNS photo by Fredrick Nzwili

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At the same time, Chessun said, there are problems for those who are gay within the Church of England, saying it is “not safe for those in same-sex unions.”

Same-sex couples are finding a greater welcome in other nearby Anglican churches. The Scottish Episcopal Church conducts same-sex weddings (and clergy in Scotland have said they are happy to marry Church of England couples or elsewhere). The Church in Wales offers blessings to civilly married gay couples.

But Welby’s problems lie farther afield. Whatever the English bishops decide in February, the conservative Global Anglican Future Conference (known as Gafcon), whose members include the Archbishops of Rwanda, Uganda and Nigeria as well as leaders of Anglican churches that have split with the Communion, will meet in April in Kigali, Rwanda. Their focus will be their dissatisfaction with the churches that have accepted same-sex couples and what they see as a lack of tough discipline from Welby.

So far, they have not threatened to quit the Communion based on how the Church of England votes, but some have suggested that if the vote doesn’t go their way, it will be the Church of England that has left, not them.

This article originally appeared here

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CatherinePepinster@churchleaders.com'
Catherine Pepinster
Catherine Pepinster is the author of “Defenders of the Faith – the British Monarchy, Religion and the Next Coronation,” published by Hodder and Stoughton.

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