St John’s and St Luke’s welcomes General Synod’s approval for blessings for same-sex couples

We hope to be able to offer services of blessing later this year

In February the General Synod of the Church of England approved the proposals brought forward by the House of Bishops for blessings to be offered to same sex couples who wish to mark a significant stage in their relationship in church. These proposals were the result of the six years of discussion and consultation across the church called ‘Living in Love and Faith’ – the details of this process are on the Diocesan website as well as the Church of England website.

While the proposals did not go as far as many of us had hoped, and so same sex couples are still not able yet to be married in a Church of England church, this is definitely a significant step forward and we will now be able to celebrate the commitments made in loving relationships of our friends in the LGBTQIA+ community in a way we were not able to do before.

To those of you who are part of that community, we want to say clearly that we look forward to welcoming you to St John’s and St Luke’s for such services as soon as we can. The guidance and new forms of service are expected to be available sometime this summer. In the meantime, we hope that you will be able to reach out to us at any time for support, friendship and partnership in the life of the church and our community.

At both St John’s and St Luke’s we belong to the Inclusive Church network which is made up of churches, groups and individuals uniting together around a shared vision of a church which celebrates and affirms every person and does not discriminate.

Our Inclusive Church statement says:

‘We will continue to challenge the church where it continues to discriminate against people on grounds of disability, economic power, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, learning disability, mental health, neurodiversity, or sexuality. We believe in a Church which welcomes and serves all people in the name of Jesus Christ; which is scripturally faithful; which seeks to proclaim the Gospel afresh for each generation; and which, in the power of the Holy Spirit, allows all people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Jesus Christ.’

We therefore warmly welcome the proposals from the House of Bishops and the approval from General Synod for services of Blessing to be offered to same-sex couples who wish to ask for God’s love and grace for their love and commitment to each other. Alongside this, Synod spoke of lament and repentance for how the Church has excluded and harmed LGBTQIA+ people – we commit ourselves to continuing to offer the fullest welcome at St John’s and St Luke’s and trust and pray that the whole Church will do the same.

We wish to recognise and celebrate that all people are made in God’s image and that in the rich and wonderful diversity of humanity, and indeed, all creation, we come to know more of the amazing God who made everything and everyone.

We continue to pray for the process of shaping the proposals over the coming months leading up to the next Synod in July, and we look forward to the guidance which will follow to enable these services to be offered in our churches.

We ask God’s blessing on us all as we continue to welcome, love, appreciate, care for and serve one another in the name of Jesus Christ.

Revd Michelle Dalliston, Revd Becka Yates,
and the Parochial Church Council of Peterborough Parish Church

February 2023

This statement is also available as a PDF here.