A senior Church of England bishop has said some LGBT people have been driven to harm or even to kill themselves as a result of “pain and rejection” caused by the church.

Paul Bayes, the bishop of Liverpool, also likened the struggle to persuade the Church of England to be truly welcoming and inclusive to LGBT people to the fight against slavery.



Speaking at the launch of the Ozanne Foundation, a Christian charity aimed at eliminating discrimination based on sexuality or gender, Bayes said the C of E was clear in its public statements opposing homophobia and that it welcomed all people.



“Yet at the same time we know that many LGBTI+ people have suffered pain and rejection from Christians, personally and institutionally, to the extent that many have left the churches or in some cases have felt compelled to self-harm or even to take their own lives. And this goes on today. We need to do better.”



The church needed to “love people as God made them”, he said. “That will have implications for our policies and stances as churches. If we are to do better, we need to change.”



There had been “other times in the history of communities of faith when people have found it difficult to accept change, and sometimes difficult to see God’s hand in it”, Bayes said.



“A classic example is the struggle for the abolition of slavery, and the ceaseless advocacy that was needed on the part of Christians to persuade their friends that God’s love for all human beings had social consequences which demanded justice.”



The Ozanne Foundation, which Bayes is chairing, would advocate courteously but “consistently and without apology” for change in C of E policy and culture, he said. “It’s work which demands patience, but which also calls for a holy impatience … While we are talking, people are suffering.”

Bayes is the most senior member of the C of E hierarchy to press publicly for far-reaching change in the church’s attitudes to LGBT people and a meaningful welcome to Christians in same-sex relationships.

As a senior bishop associated with the church’s evangelical wing, he has previously acknowledged that he has been “profoundly changed” by encounters with lesbian and gay Christians, including within his own family.

The C of E is moving “glacially slowly” on changing its attitudes, he said.

The church has been wrestling with attitudes to gay clergy and congregants in same-sex relationships for at least two decades, but campaigners for LGBT equality believe the current of opinion is in their favour.

Although the church still formally adheres to traditional biblical teaching that marriage can only be a union between a man and a woman, in practice many churches offer informal blessings to gay couples who have gone through civil wedding ceremonies.

The Ozanne Foundation is named after Jayne Ozanne, a prominent campaigner for equality within the church. Its three-pronged strategy is to “encounter, educate and empower”, and it will work with organisations around the world to advocate for equality and diversity.