Gay minister says Church of Ireland should stop sexuality focus Published duration 7 June 2015

image copyright Geograph image caption Reverend Gordon, who is originally from Portadown, is the Dean of Leighlin in County Carlow

A gay Church of Ireland minister has said the church should stop focusing on the issue of human sexuality.

Reverend Tom Gordon, the Dean of Leighlin in County Carlow, was the first Anglican clergyman in Ireland to enter into a civil partnership.

The Republic of Ireland voting for same-sex marriage should show church leaders that their focus is wrong, he told Radio Ulster's Sunday Sequence.

"We need to be getting on to talk about other things," he said.

"We need to be getting on to be talking about inequalities in society, of sort of more global issues.

"But we have in the Church of Ireland, and indeed in the Anglican communion, been almost exclusively focused in the public eye on this issue of human sexuality."

Last month, the Republic of Ireland voted overwhelmingly to legalise same-sex marriage in a historic referendum.

More than 62% voted in favour of amending the country's constitution to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry.

Ireland is the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage through a popular vote.