The announcement by the
church’s House of Bishops would allow a homosexual clergyman in a civil
partnership to become a bishop as long as he promised to remain celibate.
“The House has confirmed that clergy in civil
partnerships, and living in accordance with the teaching of the Church on human
sexuality, can be considered as candidates for the episcopate,” said the Bishop
of Norwich, Graham James.
The issue has
divided England’s state church since 2003, when gay priest Jeffrey John was
named bishop of Reading, in southeast England.
The move outraged conservatives
within England’s state church, and John was forced to resign. He was also a
candidate for bishop of Southwark in London in 2010, but traditionalists again
blocked his appointment.
All clergywomen, regardless of their
sexuality, remain banned from becoming bishops in the Church of England after
its governing body, the General Synod, failed to vote through the change in
November.
Gay men and women who are in civil
partnerships — legal unions giving them similar rights to those of married
couples — have been allowed to join the clergy since 2005 so long as they vow
to remain celibate.
The church has spent the past 18
months determining whether the conditions should also apply to gay clergymen
who wish to become bishops.
The House of Bishops announced the
change on December 20 but it was brought to light by the Church Times, an
Anglican newspaper, on Friday.
Gay couples have had the right to
enter into a civil partnership in Britain since 2005, offering them the same
legal rights as married heterosexual couples on a range of issues such as
inheritance, pensions and immigration.
The British government proposed last
month to allow same-sex marriages in religious institutions that wish to
provide them, but the established Churches of England and Wales would be exempt
from the plans.
Married heterosexual clergy in the
Church of England are not expected to remain celibate. Justin Welby, the
incoming Archbishop of Canterbury who takes charge of the church in March, is
married with five children.
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