CofE’s top female cleric: I would have ‘no problem’ with blessings for gay marriages

The most senior female cleric in the Church of England has said she would have no problem blessing gay marriages and accused the Church of “driving people away” with its current stance on same-sex relationships.

The Very Rev Vivienne Faull, the Dean of York, who is considered the front-runner to become the first woman bishop, said the current episcopate had not “quite got” how radically attitudes to homosexuality had changed in the UK.

In an interview with Radio Times, she disclosed that although she follows rules which ban official wedding-like blessing services for same-sex couples, she had previously “found ways” of celebrating gay and lesbian couples’ civil partnerships.

Speaking ahead of a new BBC2 series about York Minster, she said she had already been approached by couples of the same sex wishing to celebrate their marriage in church.

She argued that many people in Britain no longer “understand in their hearts” the Church’s position on homosexuality.

The Church of England, in common with all other large denominations, is exempt from carrying out gay weddings and has banned its gay clergy from getting married – a prohibition which has already been defied.

At the weekend, the heads of the Anglican churches in seven countries, including Nigeria and Uganda, issued a joint statement accusing the Church of England of abandoning its responsibilities by failing to bar people in gay marriages from communion.

But the Dean, who is one of a small group of women allowed to take part in meetings of the House of Bishops, urged the Church of England to relax its stance.

She said views on marriage had evolved in recent decades, with many more people – especially women – recognising the possibility of same-sex couples marrying.

“That’s a very, very significant change and I’m not sure the House of Bishops has quite got that, she said.

“It’s very difficult for leaders of organisations to be right in touch with how fast things are changing in the country.”

She added: “The blessing of a gay relationship is not theologically a problem for me personally, but I’m under the discipline of the Church and I keep the rules.

“When people have come to me in the past and said, ‘We’re looking for a way of celebrating our civil partnership, how shall we do it?’, we’ve found ways of doing it.

“I think it is very costly to the Church that women have not been able to be bishops till now – and this is also going to be costly.

"I’m getting approached by young people of the same gender planning their marriages.

“They understand in their heads what the Church’s position is, but they no longer understand in their hearts. It’s driving people away and that’s dreadful.”