The Church of England has given the first signs of a ‘blessing’ towards civil partnerships. Whilst the official stance is still unchanged, priests have been urged to be ‘flexible’ and devise ‘pastoral accommodation’ to gay couples.
A senior bishop said that same sex couples needed to be given recognition and ‘compassionate attention’ from the Church.
Some churches such as Southwark Cathedral and St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, are two churches that have openly shown support for civil partnerships by offering some ‘blessings’.
Churches have been encouraged to look at each case individually.
“In pastoral responses a degree of flexibility may be called for in finding ways to express the Church’s teaching practically,” it said.
“In affirming its belief in marriage as the form the creator has given us for intimate and permanent relationship of a man and a woman, the Church does not treat questions of what is possible in hard circumstances or exceptional conditions as simply closed. They require pastoral wisdom.”