The C of E needs to talk about sex

My friend Andy is getting married. It’s about time – he and his girlfriend have a one-year-old daughter. He wants to get married in church, so I introduced him by email to the local vicar. I was copied in to their initial correspondence. The vicar told Andy that the Church of England prohibits sex outside of marriage, so a church wedding would not be possible unless the couple repented of their sin and lived apart in the run-up to the wedding.

Of course I made up the last bit. The vicar congratulated him and his partner on their decision and started talking dates. But isn’t it true that the church teaches that sex should only take place in marriage? Yes and no. The ambiguity sheds important light on the current crisis over homosexuality.

As with premarital sex, the church has made clear that its teaching on homosexuality is not a hard rule

The C of E is introducing a couple of significant reforms relating to homosexuality: blessing same-sex couples and (probably next year) allowing gay clergy to enter into civil marriages, which implicitly ends the current policy that they should not be in sexual relationships. However, it is holding back from same-sex marriages in church.

Conservatives say that these reforms involve a change to the church’s teaching on marriage and so require the full backing of General Synod. Liberals disagree that the reforms are changing doctrine. Their objections are perhaps on pragmatic grounds – they want to get the reforms over the line. I’m a liberal, but my initial reaction was that the conservatives are right: if it wants to affirm homosexuality with new fullness, the church must admit that it is changing its teaching on sex and marriage. Having given the matter further thought, I’m not so sure.

What is the C of E’s teaching on sex and marriage? The simple answer is that people should not have sex outside of heterosexual marriage.