Spokesman: Archbishop of Canterbury does not endorse same-sex marriage
A spokesman for the Archbishop of Canterbury has claimed he was not endorsing same-sex marriage when he labelled it ‘great’ in a Pink News interview.
In an exclusive interview with Pink News yesterday, the Archbishop Justin Welby had said: “As you know I have said, and got a fair amount of flak for it within parts of the Church, we have to accept, and quite rightly, that the same-sex marriage act is law, and that it’s right and proper, it’s the law of the land, and that’s great.”
However, a spokesperson for Lambeth Palace told the Telegraph that the Archbishop was still opposed to same-sex marriage in principle, and insisted he had been speaking about parliament’s right to change the law when he used the word “great”.
The spokesperson said: “The Archbishop has said numerous times that he accepts the right of Parliament to change the law and that the Church should continue to demonstrate the love of Christ for every person.
“The Archbishop voted against the Same-Sex Marriage Act in the House of Lords last year.”
In the same interview yesterday, the Archbishop had said: “What’s my message to the gay community?
“We are struggling with the issues across the Church globally. It’s complicated with ramifications that are very difficult to deal with in many parts of the world.”
He also said that gay people were not “failures”, adding: “the love of Christ is universal for all people irrespective of who they are and the Church has to find a way of expressing that.”
