Another gay Anglican vicar has married his long-term male partner, defying the Church of England’s ban on clergy entering same-sex marriages.
Rev Paul Collier has kept his position as priest of St Hugh’s in the Diocese of Southwark after he converted his civil partnership to a marriage in early June with a celebratory service in London.
Collier admitted his marriage put him at odds with the House of Bishops, the body which issued guidance banning clergy from entering gay marriages. He told Christian Today that he had heard from his bishop, and said he had been dealt with “in accordance with the House of Bishops’ pastoral statement on same-sex marriage”.
He declined to elaborate but said: “My personal reading of the situation is I am unlikely to obtain any other positions within the Church of England.” But he said he would continue to serve as a priest at his current church.
Read it all from Christian Today.
The way CofE bishops are dealing with these few cases, via a written rebuke, is IMO some indication of the bishops’ expectations about the church’s future formal pastoral practice.
One imagines that were a priest to enter an incestuous marriage the bishops’ disciplinary powers would not be limited to a “naughty” letter.