As the Church of England prepares for its General Synod meeting, which begins Monday, some clergy members are calling for greater acceptance of LGBT people within the denomination.
The denomination refuses to allow civil partnerships, a marriage-like union available to same-sex couples in the U.K., to be performed in its churches, and it allows clergy to be in civil partnerships but requires them to be celibate.
An open letter signed by more than 100 London priests who say clergy should be allowed to perform civil partnerships in their churches if they so desire was published Thursday in London’s Times, Pink Newsreports. “This should be a matter for the individual conscience,” they wrote, as is the decision on whether to perform marriages for divorced people. The bishop of London, the Right Reverend Richard Chartres, responded by saying there are more pressing issues for the church to deal with, according to London’s Guardian.
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