Bishops are actively considering whether to recommend any change to the centuries-old teaching that gay people should remain celibate for life and that only opposite-sex couples should marry. They will present recommendations to the General Synod in February, potentially paving the way for an unprecedented vote after decades of debate and division.

It is thought that several bishops feel a change of policy is required, but Croft is the only one out of the two archbishops and 35 serving diocesan bishops to have publicly and explicitly called for the Church of England to follow Anglican churches in Scotland and the US in marrying gay couples.

A small number of more junior suffragan bishops, including the Bishops of Buckingham, Dudley and Crediton, have suggested they would back same-sex marriage. The former Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Rev Paul Bayes, also supported a "gender-neutral marriage canon" before his retirement.

Croft said that over many years of conversations with gay worshippers he had moved "from a position where I found it difficult to accept the blessing of same-sex partnerships and marriage, to one where I believe the church should embrace and bless these unions".

He called for a change in the law to allow for "the solemnisation of same-sex marriage in the Church of England" and said gay Christians, including gay priests, should have the "freedom to marry same-sex partners [and] freedom to be sexually active" within those marriages.

Croft, 65, said the church could not continue to preach to wider society about justice and the "blessings" of marriage while it "denies the rights of homosexual people to enter into loving and faithful partnerships and marriage".

He said "homosexual orientation is [now] viewed in a similar way to being left-handed", as an inbuilt trait, and said the issue had created "a profound dislocation" between the church and society.

Croft added that "it is unclear to me what is the harm" of blessing same-sex marriage.

His document concludes: "The present position of the Church of England on same-sex relationships no longer seems appropriate. Change is needed."

He stressed that priests and parishes who oppose same-sex weddings must retain the freedom "not to opt in" and said the church must recognise their stance as "legitimate and honourable", just as it provides support to parishes that still do not back the consecration of women bishops.

Commenting on this week's gathering, the Bishop of London, the Right Rev Sarah Mullally, said bishops are trying "to find a way forward that will be good news to the Church and to wider society", noting: "Bishops were united in their determination to come to a clear sense of direction."

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, who is yet to share his own personal view, said: "As our journey moves on to the next stage . . . I pray for continued guidance from the scriptures about God's intention for human life in all its glory and joy."

Croft said the "obvious interpretation of key biblical passages" seems to support the view that gay relations are sinful but he said talking to gay people had led "all of my pastoral instincts" to seek "a way of interpreting the Scriptures that allows for . . . the blessing of their partnerships".

He added: "The view of ethics and morality set out in Leviticus has been revised and adapted within the Biblical period and beyond it, in the light of the incarnation, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ."

Croft said the church has historically changed its teaching to allow the charging of interest on loans, remarriage after divorce and women to become priests and bishops.

Jayne Ozanne, a gay rights campaigner on the synod, said: "At last we have a senior diocesan bishop who is finally willing to break the self-imposed collegiate silence of the English bishops and call for an end to the manifold injustice in the way the Church of England treats LGBT+ people.

"Bishop Steven must be applauded for setting out clearly what he believes and being one of the few serving diocesan bishops to risk the wrath of the conservatives by saying in public what so many whisper in private.

"I hope that this brave prophetic step will encourage others to be open about their own views."

Apart from the ten commandments, which were literally set in stone, Christian teaching has never been an immovable object (Kaya Burgess writes).

Over the centuries, Christian doctrine in England has evolved to allow the charging of interests on loans (once known as the sin of usury), to bless the remarriage of divorcees with a living ex-spouse (see the King and Queen), and to allow women to become priests and then bishops (with more than a quarter of bishops now female).

The prospect is growing that the church's teaching on sexuality and marriage could be next in line to change.

Jesus does not mention homosexuality once in the Bible. None of the commandments mention it. There are passages condemning homosexuality in Leviticus, but they appear alongside verses stating that people should be killed for working on the sabbath, for planting different crops side-by-side and for wearing garments made of two types of thread while calling for people to be allowed to sell their daughters into slavery -- all teachings that have long been disregarded by Christianity.

It is almost a decade since same-sex marriage was legalised in England. A special loophole had to be added into legislation in 2013 to set out that this did not apply to the Church of England.

As wider society has grown increasingly accepting of the idea that a man can have a husband or a woman a wife, the church has maintained its opposition, casting it ever further adrift from secular public opinion.

For traditionalists in the church, this is seen as no reason to change centuries of Christian teaching. For liberal worshippers, it is seen as catastrophic for a church that is struggling to attract young people and reverse decades of declining attendance to be turning away faithful Christian couples who wish to declare their love and commitment before God, simply because they are gay.

The General Synod would need to vote on any change in church doctrine and any debate is likely to be bitterly divisive, after decades of disagreements and consultations. There will also be fears over a probable backlash from Anglican churches overseas, particularly in Africa.

Anglican churches in the US and Scotland have started conducting same-sex weddings, however, while the Church in Wales blesses gay couples who have had a civil wedding. The Bishop of Oxford said the Church of England should start conducting gay weddings rather than only blessing existing civil gay marriages.

The vote to allow women to become bishops failed on its first attempt, succeeding two years later after stronger safeguards were introduced to protect the rights of those who opposed the move. Any proposal to back gay weddings would almost certainly propose an "opt in" system, with no priest forced to conduct them against their will or conscience.

When such a vote could happen remains unclear, but bishops have pledged that we will know where they stand by February.

END