Church approves couples changing sex mid-marriage

THE Church of England is to tell husbands and wives they are free to change gender and stay married.

Its advice means couples will be under no pressure from the CofE to break up or divorce if one of them transitions.

The move is being seen as a shift towards recognition of same-sex marriages. In effect, the church will give its blessing to couples of the same gender, despite its traditional teaching that marriage is between a man and a woman.

Bishops plan to announce their new thinking today at a meeting of the church’s parliament, the General Synod, in York.

Synod members will be told: ‘If a couple wish to remain married after one partner has transitioned, who are we to put them asunder?’

The increasingly tolerant attitude of senior Church of England leaders has alarmed some traditional Synod members who think the CofE is shifting towards approval of same-sex unions.

The church has refused to conduct same-sex weddings since they were legalised in 2013. Tens of thousands have been solemnised only in register offices and secular ‘approved premises’.

But one Synod member said: ‘We are now on a trajectory towards same-sex marriage.’

The blessing for gender transition within marriage has been approved by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, and the CofE’s bishops, and will be made public by the Bishop of Newcastle, the Right Reverend Christine Hardman.

She is head of the Pastoral Advisory Group, set up to reconcile differences between Church of England traditionalists and gay rights activists.

In response to a Synod member’s question about whether if one person in a couple changes gender they are still married in the eyes of the church, Bishop Hardman will reply: ‘Never in the history of the church has divorce been actively recommended as the way to resolve a problem.’