House of bishops working group suggests same-sex couples could have relationships blessed as part of Anglican service

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

The Church of England should lift its ban on blessing people in same-sex relationships, according to a long-awaited report on the church's attitude to sexuality.

The report of the house of bishops working group on human sexuality, which was chaired by the retired civil servant Sir Joseph Pilling, suggests couples in permanent and faithful civil partnerships could have their relationships blessed as part of an Anglican service.

It comes seven months after the church said that the ban on blessing same-sex relationships would remain in force.

The recommendations of the report, which was commissioned by the church in January 2012, are likely to be welcomed by liberal Anglicans but provoke fury among conservative evangelicals, who remain deeply opposed to any moves to soften the church's line on homosexuality.

While stressing that there should be no change to the "church's teaching on sexual conduct", the report notes that society has moved on.

"We believe that there can be circumstances where a priest, with the agreement of the relevant parochial church council, should be free to mark the formation of a permanent same-sex relationship in a public service but should be under no obligation to do so," it says.

However, it notes that some members of the working group do not believe that such accommodations should be extended to same-sex marriage.

The group does not propose any specially authorised liturgy for the blessing of same-sex relationships and says the move would not require any change to church teachings.

It adds: "No member of the clergy, or parish, would be required to offer such services and it could not extend to solemnising same-sex marriages without major changes to the law."

In a joint statement, the archbishops of Canterbury and York noted that the issues with which the report had grappled were "difficult and divisive". They stressed that the document offered only "findings and recommendations" intended to form part of future facilitated conversations and was emphatically not "a new policy statement from the Church of England".

The report will be discussed when the house of bishops meets next month.

The report follows a series of tortuous discussions on the church's attitude to sexuality.

Eight years ago, the church issued a pastoral statement saying that clergy should not perform blessings for civil partnerships, but giving permission for clergy in celibate relationships to enter into civil partnerships.

In January this year, the house of bishops agreed that gay clergy in civil partnerships could become bishops as long as they remained sexually abstinent. The announcement was condemned by conservative evangelicals, who said the wider church had not been consulted on the matter.

Three months later, in April, the church's faith and order commission ruled out offering blessing to same-sexual couples, saying that the church's immutable definition of marriage was as "a faithful, committed, permanent and legally sanctioned relationship between a man and a woman, central to the stability and health of human society".

However, the commission did reconsider the existence of same-sexual relationships, which it termed "forms of human relationships which fall short of marriage in the form God has given us".