On the other side of the debate, representatives of liberal and progressive theology and practice in the Church of England were even harsher in their critique.
One of its most prominent voices, member of the General Synod’s Laity House and LGBT campaigner Jayne Ozanne, said the measures announced were an “utterly despicable outcome”.
“We have had countless apologies over the years but no action to stop the harmful discrimination”, she added on Twitter. “It’s insulting to all who trusted the process”….
A harder tone had the advocacy group Christian Concern, whose cief executive Andrea Williams described the move as a “capitulation by the Church of England. The bishops have lost the courage and conviction to state clearly the beauty of God’s vision for marriage between one man and one woman”. The Anglican Church in the country would be “making way for the celebration of ‘same-sex marriage’ in all but name (…) This is a landmark moment and will go down in history as a turning point in the decline and fall of the Church of England – unless these proposals can be decisively resisted by the faithful in Synod”.