London vicar set to defy ban on same-sex weddings

THE FIRST vicar to defy the ban on gay clergy marriage announced his engagement last week, despite the Church of England stance on same-sex marriage.

Father Andrew Cain has said some clergy have been frightened by the Bishops’ decision that same-sex marriage is not ‘appropriate conduct’.

However, the vicar of two London parishes said he would not back down and would go ahead with his marriage to long-term partner, atheist Stephen Foreshew.

The Church is officially opposed to same-sex marriages, but the Pilling report could allow services of blessing.

Although clergy are permitted to enter into civil partnerships, they are banned from same-sex marriages.

But Mr Cain says he will ‘press ahead’.

The couple have been together for 14 years and have waited the change in law, for which Mr Cain publically campaigned.

He did not plan on making his engagement so public, though.

“The bishops have made it an issue, not me,” he told his local newspaper.

“The bishops have really rattled people’s cages,” Mr Cain added.

“It has frightened the clergy and some of them have said they are not going to get married. I know that a number of people have left the Church but I also know that a number of us are going to go ahead and deal with the consequences.”

Receiving support on Twitter for his stance, the clergyman bats off claims that his is being ‘brave’.

“They can’t frighten me, the legal procedures for defrocking somebody are extraordinarily complex and expensive and very public... to try to defrock someone simply for exercising their rights as a United Kingdom citizen would be extraordinarily bad publicity.”

Bad publicity is something Church House is trying to avoid, following the public Twitter exchange between Arun Arora, head of communications for the Church, and leading academics who claim to have found an error in the Bishops’ letter on same-sex marriage.

The Bishops say this will be the first time the legal definition of marriage and church law on marriage would differ, but the academics claim this is not the case, given the treatment of remarriage after divorce and the deceased spouse’s siblings.

Complaints have been lodged with the Archbishops following the email exchange between Linda Woodhead, a highly respected sociologist, and Mr Arora.