Gay Anglican priest marries his boyfriend. He'll be the first of many
Campaigners predicted that Canon Pemberton would be the first of many. I think they're right. After all, it's not as if Mr Pemberton's boss, the Bishop of Lincoln, Christopher Lowson, is handing him over to the Inquisition. Over at the Mail, my old friend Jonathan Petre reports that "Bishop Lowson confirmed he had told Canon Pemberton of the House of Bishops’ statement [telling gay priests not to marry] but would not say if he was planning disciplinary action".
I'm no expert on Anglican canon law, but I'd guess that the punishment facing Mr Pemberton is the withdrawal of his licence to officiate at services (he doesn't have a parish). Technically he could be defrocked, but that would involve a messy legal process… by which time other priests will have tied the knot. The Rev Andrew Cain, for example, who was the first clergyman to declare his intention to marry, and who explained why in our Telegram podcast (click here).
That will be an interesting case. Mr Cain is the Vicar of St Mary with All Souls in Kilburn and St James in West Hampstead and known to parishioners as "Father Andrew" – ie, he's an Anglo-Catholic. North London is full of High Church priests with same-sex partners. If only a few of them defy their bishop and get married, then the Diocese of London faces a public relations as well as a legal nightmare.
Likewise, Chichester. I once went to a party in Brighton where a bishop turned up with his much younger Italian boyfriend. None of the other clergy present were bishops but they were all gay. Those were the days of the "gin, lace and backbiting" subculture, which wasn't a great advertisement for gay men or the C of E. The culture now is more open, but many homosexual clergy are still uncomfortable about their relationships – they feel that the General Synod forces them to be hypocritical or secretive. This is a Church, after all, that enjoins celibacy on gay priests but not gay laity, a compromise that I can't see surviving for much longer.
To be clear: it is now perfectly legal for Church of England clergy to marry their gay partners. It's only illegal for the established Church to stage any same-sex wedding services itself. But if your bishop turns a blind eye you can have the next best thing. A lesbian priest can marry her partner at the register office, then find an accommodating vicar who'll bless the couple in church.
How big a crisis will this cause? The Anglican Communion is dead already, so that's one thing the Archbishop of Canterbury shouldn't worry about. In the long run, I suspect that the law will be changed so parishes can opt out of having anything to do with gay weddings. Clergy and worshippers who are unhappy with (or not certain about) same-sex marriage, and therefore married gay priests, will adjust to the idea over time. Traditionalists will (a) die out (b) leave or (c) invoke the aforementioned opt-out clause.
Meanwhile, liberal Roman Catholics such as Stephen Hough will derive encouragement from these developments and anticipate the day when all Catholics are free to marry their gay partners. That won't happen, so – at the risk of sounding presumptuous – they may as well become Anglicans now.
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