Civil Partnerships and Christian Leadership
Church Society Press Release
9th January 2013
9.30am, for immediate release
Civil Partnerships and Christian Leadership
The church is open to all people, whatever their sexual orientation, to respond to Jesus’ call to “Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark chapter 1 verse 15). We stand in firm agreement with the church’s clear and biblically-faithful statement that sex is exclusively for heterosexual marriage.
. Like many heterosexual believers, some have given up long-term relationships in their pursuit of Christ-like godliness in this area, often with great pain and immense difficulty. Our prayers are with them, and we would ask the whole church to be sensitive and supportive, as they look to Christ Jesus our only Lord and Saviour.
In this context, we do not believe that church leaders at any level should confuse and undermine the call of the gospel — to deny oneself and follow Jesus — which unfortunately would be the case if those who have chosen a different path by entering civil partnerships are permitted to undertake authorised public ministry in the church.
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This antediluvian attitude of the evangelical group in Britain that presumes to call itself “Church and Society”, which presumes to pass judgement on the Church of England’s openness to allow homosexual people to express their inbuilt sexual nature in the only way given to them, can be recognised in the following quote from this recent statement:
“We recognise how pastorally unhelpful the existence of civil partnerships is for gay, lesbian, and bisexual disciples in our congregations who are positively committed, in response to God‘s word, to celibacy and fleeing sexual sin daily”
The implicit intimation given here by the Society is that all sexual activity outside of intentional procreation (by heterosexual married couples, of course) is ‘sinful’. In other words, the natural sexual affections implanted into human beings by their Creator – unless they are directed intentionally, and heterosexually, for procreative purposes – are against the will of God and therefore ‘Sinful‘.
If this is the teaching of ‘Church and Society’ – then they must surely practise what they preach and advocate a ‘sexless society’ – except for the purpose of procreation. This sounds absolutely silly, un-scriptural and hardly worthy of any Christian Apologetics explanation of gender and sexuality issues in the world of today.
There is a place for intentional celibacy in the Church of England – to be found most effectively among the nuns, monks and friars of the Religious Orders. However, I presume that not many members of the Evangelical ‘Church and Society’ membership would want to join them. Even Saint Paul said, to the rest of us, “It is better to marry than burn”.
Father Ron Smith, Christchurch, New Zealand
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