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Top Archbishops wade into gay wedding furore
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Archbishops express "great concern" over gay clerics' "wedding"
"We set out to express... a love of a type which is not unusual or perverse but which is perfectly ordinary and accepted outside the church"
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, have issued a joint statement condemning the ceremony held in May to celebrate the union of two clerics. "We have heard the reports of the recent service in St. Bartholomew the Great with very great concern," they said. "Those clergy who disagree with the teaching are at liberty to try and persuade others why they believe, in the light of scripture, tradition and reason, that it should be changed. But they are not at liberty to simply disregard it."
In the letter, the Archbishops, the two most senior in the country, said they were unable to comment on the St. Bartholemews case in particular as it was at the centre of an investigation, an investigation they are supposed to hold no influence over, though the joint statement obviously sends out a very strong message as to their views.
The Rev. Martin Dudly, the man who presided over the ceremony at St. Bartholemew's has, meanwhile, written in the New Statesman that "we set out to express, experimentally, pushing at boundaries, a love of a type which is not unusual or perverse but which is perfectly ordinary and accepted outside the church. Why then can it not be accepted inside the community that is based, not on law, but on the loving presence of God in Jesus Christ?"
