Allowing clergy to be in same-sex marriages would also involve a change in the Church\u2019s position. In line with the Bible and the Christian tradition the Church of England has always held that clergy need to live lives of visible holiness so as to be \u2018wholesome examples and patterns to the flock of Christ,\u2019 [4] and that this means, among other things, that their sexual conduct must be in line with the biblical principle of either sexual faithfulness within heterosexual marriage or sexual abstinence outside it. What the bishop\u2019s suggestion would mean is either the Church saying that the sexual conduct of the clergy simply does not matter, or that same-sex sexual relationships are acceptable to God, neither of which the Church of England has authority to say.<\/p>\n
It is also not something that is required on \u2018ecumenical or Anglican inter-provincial grounds.\u2019 There is nothing in the Church of England\u2019s ecumenical commitments or in its membership of the Anglican Communion that means that the Church of England needs to allow clergy to be in same-sex marriages. This is a complete red-herring.<\/p>\n
If the Church of England were to adopt either or both of the bishop\u2019s suggestions this would mean that it had ceased to uphold Christian orthodoxy with regard to sexual ethics. At this point orthodox Anglicans would have no choice except to visibly differentiate themselves from the Church of England\u2019s position and the only way this could be done would either be through the formation of a province within the Church of England that continued to uphold orthodox Christian teaching and practice with regard to sexual ethics, or by their leaving the Church of England to join another Anglican jurisdiction that had remained orthodox in this area.[5]<\/p>\n
The fundamental problem with the bishop\u2019s address is that he is not acting properly as a bishop. As he rightly says, bishops are called to be \u2018principal ministers of word and sacrament\u2019 and \u2018chief pastors\u2019 However, as the 1662 Ordinal makes clear is that this means that bishops are called to \u2018teach and exhort with wholesome doctrine\u2019 and \u2018banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrine contrary to God\u2019s word.\u2019 [6]<\/p>\n