Welby: We must embrace complex modern families
THE Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday warned that churches must learn to live with a world in which families are no longer led only by married couples.
Even Church of England schools are now filled with children from ‘ myriad combinations’ of men, women and children, the Most Reverend Justin Welby said.
In a speech that pointed at a fresh direction for the Church’s attitude towards marriage, the Archbishop said that ‘in the last 40 years there has been a great shift in the understanding and the reality of family life’.
He threw his support behind the idea that different forms of families can provide a stable home, adding: ‘The family, however it is experienced, is the place where we can be at our strongest and most secure.’
Last night his intervention provoked protests from evangelicals and social conservatives, who said the Church should be standing up for marriage.
Archbishop Welby offered his view on the modern understanding of family life in a lecture during a visit to Christian leaders in Moscow.
‘It is easy to define what makes up the family very narrowly,’ he said. ‘It is also easy to base ideas and ideals about the family on one’s own experience. The reality is that family life is and always has been complex. Parish priests up and down the country tell me about their experience in the primary schools in their parishes where children are brought up in myriad combinations of family.’
He added that the majority of Britons now see gay marriage as unchallengeable, yet the Church has failed to keep up.
Research shows that children of married parents do better in school, have better jobs and health and are more likely to avoid drugs and crime. Last night evangelical Andrea Minichiello Williams, a member of the General Synod – the CofE’s parliament, said: ‘ There is an opportunity for the Church to stand up for marriage and not to surrender to popular culture. All the evidence shows that children do best with a married mother and father.’