The church should welcome gay marriage, says Archbishop of Wales

[Source]

The church should welcome gay marriage, says Archbishop of Wales

The Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, has said that the church should welcome the concept of same-sex marriages.

Peter Lloyd

---

20 April 2012

The Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, has said that the church should welcome the concept of same-sex marriages. The assertion came in an address to the Church in Wales' governing body, during a meeting in Llandudno, Wales.

Referring to same-sex marriage, he said: "There are no easy simple answers to complicated ethical problems, nor is there a straightforward single Christian perspective on it, in spite of what some people may think. "If the legislation to allow civil marriage is passed, I cannot see how we as a church, will be able to ignore the legality of the status of such partnerships and we ought not to want to do so.

"The question then as now is, will the church protect and support pastorally, faithful, stable, lifelong relationships of whatever kind in order to encourage human values such as love and fidelity and recognise the need in Christian people for some public religious support."

The comments come shortly after the UK government launched a three-month consultation on the matter in March.

"Gays and lesbians claim they are still treated as second-class citizens, tolerated at best and vilified at worst," Morgan added.

"Very often homosexuality is talked about as if real people were not involved, and gays and lesbians complain of being talked about rather than talked to in church.

"The real question is, how do we hold together faithfulness to Scripture and tradition with the wider New Testament call to love our neighbour?"