Hundreds of Anglican clergy in the UK have written an open letter pushing to allow civil ceremonies for gay couples in churches.
AFP Has the story:
The Church of England faced a rebellion from its clergy Thursday over a ban on gay civil partnership ceremonies on its premises.
Nearly 100 clergy from the London diocese, which has 470 stipendiary priests, signed a letter to The Times newspaper urging that priests be allowed to follow their individual conscience on whether to hold civil partnership ceremonies in their churches.
The Church of England said in December it would not permit civil partnership ceremonies on its premises without the express permission of its general assembly.
New laws allowing same sex “weddings” in places of worship in England and Wales came into force that month, though no religious group is obliged to host them.
Civil partnerships for same-sex couples were introduced in Britain in December 2005, giving them similar rights to married heterosexual couples. However, the partnerships cannot legally be referred to as marriages.
Read the full story via AFP.
