Dr John was speaking at a news conference at St Albans Cathedral, where he will be installed as Dean this year, succeeding the Very Rev Christopher Lewis who is now Dean of Christ Church, Oxford.

Dr John’s views are significant because, although the appointment is not as provocative as if he had been made a bishop, his promotion has the support of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.

Dr John, who abides by church rules on homosexuality and has had an abstinent 27-year relationship with his partner, another Anglican priest, pledged not to contravene canon law.

He said: “Certainly I won’t be attempting to do anything in the abbey which goes against the canons of the Church of England. Certainly as things stand, anything resembling a same-sex marriage service would be against these.

“I support the State and the Church offering gay people a framework to live their lives within, a covenant of faithfulness to each other. I do not much mind whether one calls that a marriage or not.

“What matters is that gay people are given that framework for stable, healthy living.” He hoped the Church would follow the State in supplying that framework. He said a relationship between two men or two women could be sacramental in the same way as a heterosexual marriage because “it can reflect that love of God”.

Dr John said he had been banned from visiting St Albans Cathedral in the past few months in case news leaked out that he was being considered for the post of dean. He said: “It’s a wonderful place. It’s not only a very beautiful place, it’s a deep place, a profound place.”

Dr John, 51, said that as dean he would help the cathedral to work towards its £6.4 million appeal target for education, music and fabric, but he also wanted to develop his role as pastor, teacher and preacher. “This is a place that has been prayed in for a good 17 centuries by monks, parishioners and pilgrims, a ‘thin’ place, as the Celts say, where the barriers seem to be down between Heaven and Earth.

“That’s very important, because so often the Church, let alone the world, has lost this sense of place and holy presence, and losing that has left us bereft of something crucial.”

The Bishop of St Albans, the Right Rev Christopher Herbert, welcomed the appointment. He backed Dr John’s statement on same-sex blessings, saying such relationships could have “something of the mercy and the love of God”.

Bishop Herbert said: “I am very, very pleased that the State is beginning to recognise same-sex partnerships. I agree entirely with Jeffrey that human relationships are based on covenant. Marriage is obviously what God desires for many of us but I think what God desires overall is covenant, faithful relationships.” The Bishop added: “Jeffrey John has a well-deserved reputation for being a good, caring pastor. He is an intelligent, courageous priest who will follow a long line of superb deans of St Albans and will bring to the abbey a wide range of gifts. He is a man of prayer, a preacher and teacher of real authority and grace.”

The appointment comes at a sensitive time in the Anglican Communion, which remains in danger of being split by the debate over gays. Dr John’s remarks on same-sex blessings and Bishop Herbert’s backing for him will deepen concerns among conservative evangelicals that the Church of England is heading in the same direction as Canada and the US.

Last week, leaders of the Church in Africa issued a statement insisting that they would accept no future funding from dioceses in the West that took a liberal approach on the gay issue and giving the American Church three months to “repent” for its ordination of the openly gay priest Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. Dr Williams had pleaded for a period of calm reflection in Anglican provinces worldwide until the Lambeth Commission that he has set up to resolve the issue reports at the end of the year.

The appointment of Dr John to St Albans was made by the Queen on the advice of Downing Street.

Because St Albans is a parish church cathedral, Bishop Herbert was consulted as patron of the parish. He said: “I had to take this entirely on my own shoulders and have not been able to discuss the appointment with my closest colleagues nor with the cathedral staff or wardens, simply because the system of appointment does not allow this.”

LIFE AND WORK

Jeffrey John was born in the South Wales mining village of Tonyrefail in 1953 and brought up as a chapel boy. He was confirmed as an Anglican at 18. While reading classics and modern languages at Oxford he was called to the priesthood. He served a curacy in South Wales then returned to Oxford at Magdalen and Brasenone colleges, doing theological research and teaching as well as pastoral duties. Appointed Vicar of Holy Trinity, Eltham, in 1992, he became a canon at Southwark six years later.

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