Synod question

Sir, If I had been an Anglican and a member of the recent General Synod, I would have liked to have asked this question. How many re-married divorced clergy (including Bishops) are there currently ministering in the Church of England?

The answer would have counteracted the comment of the Bishop of Sheffield, who protested that there has been no change in the Church of England’s understanding of marriage.

He seems to forget that within living memory the Church of England caused a King Emperor to abdicate over his intended marriage to a divorcee and that right up until the 1990s, divorce and remarriage were also a bar to ordination.

Re-marriage is now reduced to the opinion of an officiating cleric. The Church of England bishops may have the legal right to bar gay marriage, but to state they have not altered Anglican teaching on marriage is utterly ridiculous, given the status of their next supreme Governor, and the thousands of divorcees who have been and are being remarried in the Church of England.

Why can an unrepentant active gay person be allowed Holy Communion (as their pastoral guidance document asserts) but is not considered suitable for marriage? The whole pastoral document is riddled with inconsistencies.

Robert Ian Williams,

Bangor