Church Of England To Allow Blessings For Gay Couples

Gay couples should be allowed to have their relationships blessed in church, the Church of England said yesterday.

Bishops should lift their official ban on ceremonies to mark civil partnerships and the relationships of gay and lesbian churchgoers, a long-awaited CofE report said.

It signalled an end to the Church's longstanding insistence that gay relationships are sinful and less worthy than heterosexual marriage.

The report, written by former civil servant Sir Joseph Pilling and a team of senior churchmen and women, may now open the way for a reversal of the CofE's opposition to same-sex marriage and the eventual appointment of actively homosexual priests and bishops.

It was published seven months after the Church first indicated it is looking at 'accommodations' for same-sex couples and four months after the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, told Church leaders that 'we must accept there is a revolution in the area of sexuality.'

Archbishop Welby said yesterday that bishops will now 'consider the report and decide how such a process might best be shaped.'

In its key paragraph the Pilling report declared: 'We believe there can be circumstances where a priest, with the agreement of the parish, should be free to mark the formation of a permanent same-sex relationship in a public service but should be under no obligation to do so.'