Church of England vicars defy bishops in stand for LGBTQ+ inclusion

A growing number of Church of England vicars are openly rebelling against their bishops’ controversial move to block standalone blessings for same-sex couples - a decision critics say amounts to “killing off” the Church’s tentative steps toward LGBTQ+ inclusion.

The backlash follows a recent announcement by the House of Bishops that special services to bless same-sex unions - previously approved for trial by the General Synod in 2023 - should not proceed unless canon law is rewritten. This effectively halts progress on what many hoped would be a meaningful gesture of welcome and affirmation for LGBTQ+ Christians.

But liberal clergy are refusing to back down.

“I’m very happy to affirm the marriage of gay people,” said Rev Canon Dr Giles Fraser, Vicar of St Anne’s, Kew. “The Church blesses battleships, for goodness’ sake, but not two people who love each other? That’s bonkers.” Fraser, like many others, has vowed to go “up to the wire and perhaps a bit beyond” in blessing same-sex couples, despite the bishops’ guidance. 

Canon Simon Butler, a prominent voice among Inclusive Evangelicals, has also challenged the bishops’ authority, calling their decision “an illegitimate piece of overreach” and insisting that canon law already permits such services. “We’ve been led up the garden path by bishops and then dropped,” he said.

The bishops’ move has reignited deep divisions within the Church. While conservatives argue that standalone blessings too closely resemble weddings - which remain banned - progressives see the latest decision as a betrayal of LGBTQ+ people and a retreat from promises of inclusion.

The Rev Charlie Baczyk-Bell, a gay priest, accused the bishops of using procedural hurdles to quietly kill reform. “Moving to the two-thirds majority is essentially a way of killing it because they know there’s not a two-thirds majority in Synod,” he said. “No to services and no to marriage. But they say ‘we have sorted it out’”.