Bishop of Bath: ‘Marriage has always been reserved for husband and wife’
The new Bishop of Bath and Wells has restated his opposition to equal marriage.
When asked where he stood on same-sex marriage, Bishop Peter told ITV West Country: “The Church’s understanding of marriage has always been that marriage is for husband and wife – for man and for woman.
“Now that has changed. The government has changed that. But I think the Church wants to recognise the sanctity and importance of marriage, whatever the future debate may hold.”
Bishop Welby said the Church of England must provide love and compassion to gay Christians.
He added: “Caring for people is at the very heart of what we as a Church are called to do”.
“Human sexuality is just one aspect of caring for people, and the Church needs to take very seriously God’s command to care and to love all people”.
The Church reaffirmed its opposition to equal marriage last month in response to coverage of PinkNews’ exclusive interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
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.”
A spokesperson for Lambeth Palace then said 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”.
