The Church of England has accepted it is the will of parliament that gay and lesbian couples can marry – and will stop fighting it.

The Bishop of Leicester, Tim Stevens, who leads the bishops in the House of Lords, Britain’s upper chamber of parliament, has made the statement today (5 June).

He said they will now try to ‘improve’ the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill for England and Wales, rather than trying to block it.

The bill has been passed by big majorities in the House of Commons and yesterday (4 June) won by a landslide in the House of Lords.

But it still has to go through a committee of the whole house, when lords will get to scrutinize and change it – including the bishops who sit in the Lords as representatives of the country’s established religion.

The big u-turn comes after Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, the new head of the Anglican Church worldwide, used his speech in the debate on gay marriage in the Lords on Monday (3 June) to express ‘sorrow’ about the church’s record with the gay and trans community.

At the time Welby said the new bill would mean marriage was ‘abolished, redefined and recreated’ and the institution ‘weakened’.

But he added: ‘It is also absolutely true the church has often not served the LGBT communities in the way it should. I express my sadness and sorrow for that considerable failure.’

It now seems his objections to the bill have been overcome by the massive vote in favor of allowing the bill to progress through the House of Lords – 390 agreed the bill should progress with only 148 trying to stop it, a majority of 242.

In a statement, Right Reverend Tim Stevens, Convenor of the Lords Spiritual, said bishops would now ‘join’ with politicians to strengthen parts of the bill rather than resisting it.

The Telegraph reports him as saying: ‘Both Houses of Parliament have now expressed a clear view by large majorities on the principle that there should be legislation to enable same-sex marriages to take place in England and Wales.

‘It is now the duty and responsibility of the bishops who sit in the House of Lords to recognize the implications of this decision and to join with other members in the task of considering how this legislation can be put into better shape.

‘The concerns of many in the church, and in the other denominations and faiths, about the wisdom of such a move have been expressed clearly and consistently in the parliamentary debate.

‘For the bishops the issue now is not primarily one of protections and exemptions for people of faith, important though it is to get that right, not least where teaching in schools and freedom of speech are concerned.

‘The bill now requires improvement in a number of other key respects, including in its approach to the question of fidelity in marriage and the rights of children.

‘If this bill is to become law, it is crucial that marriage as newly defined is equipped to carry within it as many as possible of the virtues of the understanding of marriage it will replace.

‘Our focus during committee and report stages in the coming weeks and months will be to address those points in a spirit of constructive engagement.’

The reference to ‘fidelity’ in marriage is because neither non-consummation or adultery would be counted as automatic reasons for divorce in new gay and lesbian marriages as the bill is currently framed.

However gays and lesbians who wished to split for this reason would be able to cite their partner’s ‘unreasonable’ behavior.

Likewise, the church is anxious to protect teachers who do not agree with marriage from having to support it in lessons and marriage registrars who do not wish to wed gay couples from having to do so.

The government has said registrars would have to do their job but teachers would only have to say gay marriage was the law in the country, not that they supported it.

Meanwhile the new Bishop of Manchester was today named as David Walker, the current Bishop of Dudley. And it was revealed the job specification for the role included the need to foster better links with the city’s big LGBT population.

Walker used his first comments since being given the promotion to say he wouldn’t have voted against gay marriage yesterday.

He said: ‘I fully understand why in a society, where for so long gay people have been subjected to such abuse and ill treatment, many people say if they are asking for equality in the area of marriage that is something they can get.

‘I can see why in our society many people now – the majority of people – think that if this will help them to feel less badly treated then let them have it.’