Lord help us – the church is agonising over same-sex couples again

After years of anguished deliberation, the Church of England has decided to abandon plans to allow gay couples to have dedicated blessing services in church, and to extend its ban on priests marrying same-sex partners – but with two out of three Anglicans worldwide being African, it could help ensure the institution has a future, says Catherine Pepinster

There was a moment, two weeks ago, when calm and celebration came over the Church of England. When the appointment of Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury was announced it was welcomed by a remarkable coalition of evangelicals, gay people, champions of traditional parishes – people usually at loggerheads with one another about the future direction of the institution.

Now, though, it’s business as usual. The bureaucracy of the Church of England has swung into gear again, with an announcement that there will have to be yet more arguments over the future in the Church of same-sex couples. Or, to use churchspeak – there will be further synodical processes.

While most Anglicans were basking in the unusual dappled sunlight of unity surrounding the appointment of Mullally – the first woman to become Archbishop of Canterbury – her fellow bishops were gathering for a residential meeting about where to go next on same-sex couples, both in terms of offering church blessings, and whether to allow CofE clergy to have same-sex civil marriages.

Almost a year ago, the Synod – the ‘parliament’ of the Church of England – agreed for a trial period of stand-alone same-sex blessings. But it never happened. Now, there will be another discussion, and a vote, on same-sex blessings, which will require a two-thirds majority of all the sections of the Synod – the bishops, the clergy, and the laity.

As for gay priests wanting a civil marriage, they can go whistle. The bishops have decided that there is to be no change on that: the ban on clergy marrying their same-sex partners is to be extended.

What we are seeing in effect, is the great lumbering machine of the Church of England staggering along. This row is about the nature of love – but you’d be hard put to realise it at times. There is talk – definitely not pillow talk – of laws, amendments, measures, amending canons, and something that is definitely not to do with kinky tastes in the bedroom, called “relaxation of discipline”.

Blame Henry VIII. For all his notoriety regarding wives, Henry essentially broke away from the Roman Catholic Church in a row over the ultimate court of appeal in canon law. It was about the issue of who was the chief magistrate – should the pope decide ultimately if Henry could marry again, or somebody else. He set up the Church of England, and even if the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury is not that of an English pope, the Church of England created its own laws, and red tape entangled it even more by it being the Established Church. So not only does it get caught up in legal complexities of its own, but what it decides will be contingent on Parliament.

As Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York, said of these latest developments, some people – by which he means gay couples, gay clergy and moderate Anglicans – are going to be disappointed by what has happened, offering something more human and empathetic than the official Church of England statement which referred to “procedural realities”.

But there are other issues at work here too: not just red tape, but politics, and money.

The Church of England knows that what it does is watched closely by the global Anglican Communion, and some of its loudest voices are African, utterly opposed to any tolerance, let alone endorsement of gay relationships. Worldwide, two in every three Anglicans are from Africa.

Some African churches have already waved goodbye to the Communion, but post-Welby, in the Mullaly era, the Church of England won’t want to alienate any more. It will hope to find some sort of compromise to keep them on board.

Then there is money. Jesus may have thrown the moneylenders out of the temple, but the donors – they are most definitely still flexing their financial muscle in the Church of England. Many of the biggest churches and the wealthiest individual givers in the Church of England are evangelicals, with a strong adherence to literal reading of Scripture.

They can quote you chapter and verse on why homosexuality is wrong. If they can’t be kept on side, and nor can the Africans, this will see a drop-off in both worldwide Anglican congregations and cash.

When it comes to the modern-day Church, love is a numbers game.