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ENGLAND: Canon joins same-sex partnership
By Ruth Gledhill
THE LONDON TIMES
December 9, 2005
A canon at Salisbury Cathedral is the most senior Church of England clergyman to declare his intention to register his same-sex partnership.
At least one other cathedral canon is also intending to register a partnership. The Precentor of Salisbury, the Rev Canon Jeremy Davies will mark his 60th birthday in January with a party for 120 people at which he will be joined in partnership with Simon McEnery, the opera singer.
The Bishop of Salisbury, the Right Rev David Stancliffe, and his wife Sarah are expected to drop in briefly to join the celebrations. The Dean of Salisbury, the Very Rev June Osborne, who is the country’s most senior woman cleric, is also expected to attend.
Canon Davies, who has been Precentor for 20 years, and Mr McEnery met 18 years ago at a party in Canon Davies’s house in the cathedral close. Mr McEnery, 41, moved in shortly afterwards. Initial plans for a religious service were dropped out of respect for church sensitivities. Clergy who register civil partnerships have to give their bishop assurances that their relationship is celibate.
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Vicar's gay 'marriage' to have church blessing
By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent
THE TELEGRAPH
9/12/2005
An openly homosexual vicar is to have his gay "marriage" blessed at a church service at which the former Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev David Jenkins, will preach.
The ceremony is expected to be the first of a number of such events that clearly flout official guidelines issued by the House of Bishops in July when clergy were told that they should not conduct formal blessings of civil partnerships to avoid equating them with marriage.
But many clergy are planning to defy the bishops by hosting thanksgiving services. The prospect is causing mounting alarm among the bishops and it was discussed at a private meeting on Wednesday chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.
The bishops fear that widespread indiscipline could undermine their authority and heighten tensions in the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Church.
The Rev Christopher Wardale, the vicar of Holy Trinity, Darlington, and Malcolm Macourt, a retired academic, will sign civil partnership papers before the blessing at St Thomas the Martyr church, Newcastle, on Dec 21.
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