{"id":147618,"date":"2026-09-29T17:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T21:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=147618"},"modified":"2026-09-29T18:05:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T22:05:39","slug":"church-times-anglican-church-of-southern-africa-rejects-blessings-for-same-sex-couples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=147618","title":{"rendered":"(Church Times) Anglican Church of Southern Africa rejects blessings for same-sex couples"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/topics\/anglican-church-of-southern-africa\">Anglican Church of Southern Africa<\/a> (ACSA) has once again rejected proposals for prayers and liturgy to be developed for same-sex couples, despite pleas from its outgoing Archbishop, Dr Thabo Makgoba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/topics\/same-sex-marriage\">Same-sex marriage<\/a> has been legal in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/topics\/south-africa\">South Africa<\/a> since 2006. A motion from the diocese of False Bay, in Western Cape, asked the Church\u2019s Provincial Synod, which met in Benoni, Ekurhuleni last week, to develop prayers for couples in same-sex unions. The motion was lost by seven votes, 78-71, with ten abstentions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr Makgoba, who has been Primate since 2008, has called repeatedly for the inclusion of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/topics\/lgbtsexuality\">LGBTQ+<\/a> community. He appealed to the Synod: \u201cWe pray for trees, we pray for cars, we pray for avocados!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A second motion, from the diocese of Johannesburg, proposed compiling a separate liturgy to serve what it called the \u201cgrave pastoral need\u201d of the LGBTQ+ community, but this was also lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/articles\/2026\/2-october\/news\/world\/anglican-church-of-southern-africa-rejects-blessings-for-same-sex-couples\">Read it all<\/a>.<\/p><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Anglican Church of Southern Africa &#x1f1ff;&#x1f1e6; has again rejected two proposals for special prayers and liturgy to be developed for same-sex couples, despite pleas from its outgoing Archbishop, Dr Thabo Makgoba. <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/ChurchNews?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ChurchNews<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/ChurchTimes?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ChurchTimes<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/I7xTdsLljH\">https:\/\/t.co\/I7xTdsLljH<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Church Times (@ChurchTimes) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ChurchTimes\/status\/2104612465073893512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 28, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) has once again rejected proposals for prayers and liturgy to be developed for same-sex couples, despite pleas from its outgoing Archbishop, Dr Thabo Makgoba. Same-sex marriage has been legal in South Africa since<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=147618\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[406,175,168,184,177,514,79,34,169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglican-church-of-southern-africa","category-anthropology","category-ethics-moral-theology","category-parish-ministry","category-pastoral-theology","category-same-sex-blessings","category-sexuality-debate-in-anglican-communion","category-theology","category-theology-scripture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=147618"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147622,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147618\/revisions\/147622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=147618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=147618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=147618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}