THE Church of England opened the door to gay “marriages” yesterday when it endorsed a report saying that blessing services for homo- sexual couples could be an option for the future.

In backing the report, Some Issues in Human Sexuality, the General Synod, meeting in Westminster, also left itself open to a stricter approach. But senior insiders acknowledged that after months of damaging controversy over homosexual blessings and ordinations, the mood of the Church had taken a sudden swing in the liberal direction and that eventual change was now probable.

The Church’s current policy, set out in 1991 in Issues in Human Sexuality, rules out gay relationships for clergy but permits them in certain cases for the laity.

The Bishop of Oxford, the Right Rev Richard Harries, said the new report did not set out to change the position but was a guide to the debate. It was published last year while the Church worldwide was exercised by the ordination in America of an openly gay bishop, the Right Rev Gene Robinson, and the withdrawal under pressure of the celibate gay canon Dr Jeffrey John from his nomination as Bishop of Reading.

However, the sources said that merely by endorsing a report that discusses for the first time the possibility of gay blessings as a way forward the synod had opened the door and that change was now likely.

Speaking before the synod voted yesterday to “take note” of the report and commend it to the Church for discussion, Bishop Harries said the Church might decide in the future to take a stricter approach but might also opt for a “more inclusive one”. He said the latter would lead to the introduction of services of blessing for gay and lesbian couples.

Bishop Harries argued that diversity could not simply be ignored.

“We have to decide which are matters which fall within the scope of legitimate diversity and we have to ask how a common mind can be achieved on sexual ethics if it is not enough simply to tolerate diversity.”

The bishop opened a debate that lacked the anger and passion that has characterised this issue in recent years. Afterwards he said that there had been a fundamental change in the Church’s mood and predicted that change was now inevitable. He said that most people accepted it was no longer possible to remain with the status quo.

In the debate, those advocating the liberal view outnumbered the conservatives by about four to one. Brian McHenry, vice-chairman of the House of Laity and representing the Southwark Diocese, said the Church was seen as homophobic. “There is increasing evidence we are not in tune with public opinion,” he said.

He called for the Church to adopt a different stance to reflect a Gospel message of justice, fairness and inclusivity.

Sister Rosemary, an Anglican nun from Radford, Nottingham, said that while she had taken a voluntary vow of celibacy it was wrong for the Church to impose celibacy on others. Some found strength in its discipline but others only misery.

“For others misery remains just misery. Exposure to the danger of a kind of withering of the heart makes them less and less able to love anybody.”

She spoke in favour of committed gay Christian relationships, saying she wished to rejoice in the quality of lives they could give but the Church said she must not. “Open our eyes to what God is doing in our gay brothers and sisters,” she urged the synod.

The Rev David Banting, chairman of Reform, the leading conservative evangelical organisation in the Church, attacked the gay “lobby” for trying to change the Church’s position, arguing that it ignored biblical teaching.

“The assertiveness and the urgency of this particular lobby has led to widespread disturbance and even schism to the Anglican Church around the world,” he said.

Those seeking to change the Church’s teaching and practice needed to engage with biblical arguments much more than they appeared to, Mr Banting said. He added: “Homosexual practice is wrong.”

Later the Synod accepted a motion that reaffirmed that “marriage is central to the stability and health of human society” but called also for new legal rights to be created for those whose relationships are not based on marriage.

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