The Labour shadow cabinet minister Chris Bryant has declared he has given up on the Church of England, saying its stance on homosexuality would one day look as wrong as supporting slavery.

The shadow leader of the House of Commons, who is gay and a former Anglican priest, made the statement after the US Episcopal church was barred from Church of England decision-making bodies over its liberal approach to gay relationships and recognition of same-sex marriage.

I've finally given up on Anglican church today after its love-empty decision on sexuality. One day it will seem wrong as supporting slavery. — Chris Bryant MP (@RhonddaBryant) January 14, 2016

Bryant’s comments came as liberal Anglicans expressed disappointment and anger over an agreement reached in Canterbury on Thursday that penalised the US church for its stance on gay rights and explicitly reaffirmed “traditional doctrine” on marriage as a union between a man and a woman.



The statement by Anglican leaders, thrashed out after four days of “painful” talks in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, made no reference to LGBT Christians.

“To say I’m really disappointed would be an understatement,” Martyn Percy, the dean of Christ Church, Oxford, told the Guardian. “The statement had nothing to say about LGBT Christians, and that’s a lost opportunity. By saying nothing, you are sending a signal.”

Jayne Ozanne, a prominent gay evangelical within the Church of England and a member of its General Synod, said the statement was a “typical fudge” and an attempt to “buy time”.

“We still disagree fundamentally with each other,” she added. “It’s a miracle that [the primates] have come to an agreement, but at what cost? If the marginalised and most oppressed pay the price, it’s not worth it.

“We’re not going away. We are here; baptised members of the faith, gathering our straight friends who are choosing to stand tall with us. Momentum is building, and I believe that is Holy Spirit-inspired.”



Alan Wilson, the bishop of Buckingham, said the statement was a “triumph of ecclesiastical politics and diplomacy” but ignored the “real church, the grassroots church”.

Wilson was one of thousands of signatories of an open letter to Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, before the summit. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the letter was an appeal to “remember people who experience discrimination, intolerance, persecution, violence. It’s a shame [the statement] forgot them.”

Another signatory of the letter, David Ison, the dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, said he was very disappointed with Thursday’s statement. “It was simply concerned with how to handle splits within the Anglican communion rather than the pastoral care of LGBT people.”

Speaking before the final communique was issued, Ison said he was “both hopeful and realistic” that divisions and differences within the communion could be overcome.

Bryant told the Guardian: “It’s infuriating. The Church of England voted against abolishing slavery, kept slaves when the slave trade had been abolished. It voted against the Reform Act. And now of course every sane member of the church

thinks that was nonsense and embarrassing.

“How embarrassing that the state-sponsored, state-subsidised, state-protected Church of England should be telling off the accuser.”

Bryant left the priesthood in 1992 after six years, but has retained his faith with a “fairly heterodox” approach.



“I maintained a boycott of the Church of England until they had women bishops and now they have gone back again,” he said. “If they don’t want me, I don’t want them. I know where I’m not wanted. I’ve had messages and emails from people saying ‘frankly you’re not wanted because you are gay’, and these from people who reckon themselves to be Christian.”

Bryant was the first person to hold a civil partnership ceremony in the Houses of Parliament.

The meeting in Canterbury is due to end on Friday with a communique issued by Welby on behalf of the Anglican communion.

On Thursday, the leaders of Anglican churches agreed to suspend the US Episcopal church, which recognises and celebrates same-sex marriages, from membership of communion bodies and committees for three years.

It explicitly condemned same-sex marriage as a “fundamental departure” from traditional Anglican teaching. It said: “The traditional doctrine of the church in view of the teaching of scripture upholds marriage as between a man and a woman in faithful, lifelong union. The majority of those gathered reaffirm this teaching.”

Despite church officials claiming that the agreement averted a permanent schism in the Anglican communion over the issue of sexuality, the response from both liberals and conservatives suggested that tensions and divisions were set to continue and possibly deepen.

Leaders of Gafcon, a group of conservative Anglicans deeply opposed to same-sex marriage and gay rights, said: “This action must not be seen as an end, but as a beginning.”

Peter Jensen, Gafcon’s general secretary, told the Today programme that the statement did not go far enough. However, he said it was a “good statement as well because it represents widespread global disquiet with what is happening in the US, Canada and the west. It’s a warning to liberal-thinking Christians everywhere.”

He said US churches “need to repent”, and there was “immense disquiet about the sexual revolution in the west”.

Foley Beach, the archbishop of the conservative Anglican church of North America which broke away from the Episcopal church over sexual equality, said: “The sanctions placed on the Episcopal church are strong, but they are not strong enough, and to my deep disappointment they didn’t include the Anglican church of Canada as they should ... This is a good step back in the right direction, but it will take many more if the communion is to be restored.”

In an indication of the strength of anger among liberals, Dr Abby Day, who edited Contemporary Issues in the Worldwide Anglican Communion, described the statement as a “death rattle”.

“It’s a shameful, but unsurprising, decision from a body that continues to lose support for its antediluvian positions. As anyone who visits churches in the UK and USA – as I do in my research – knows: there’s a large and visible contingent of gay men and women in the pews and the pulpits.

“This is changing the demographic of the church where the old women – once the backbone of the church – are dying off ... Gay church attendees are the new old ladies.”