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Celebrating civil partnerships in church

by
07 December 2011

iStock

From the Revd Anne Bennett

Sir, — It is sad that the Secretary General of the General Synod felt the need to instruct churches that they should not host civil-partnership ceremonies without the express approval of the Synod. The language in which the legal opinion was expressed may have been legally appropriate, but it is theologically invidious.

The Church of God is precisely not a boutique institution catering to a specific target market, such as a gentlemen’s outfitters: it is for all God’s beloved children, especially when expressed as the Established Church of the nation.

I long for the day when a couple can sit before their parish priest to plan their wedding, shy and happy as they seek to honour their God-given calling to a life-time of commitment and fidelity, and we do not have to close the door in their faces just because they are gay.

ANNE BENNETT
218 Sunderland Road
South Shields NE34 6AT

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