Church of England split over same-sex blessings deepens amid rebel recruitment drive.
Traditionalists plan to ordain their own ministers within months in bid to establish a ‘parallel province’ for those opposed to gay marriage.
Tim Sigsworth
21 December 2024 1:30pm GMT
Conservatives in the Church of England will start ordaining their own ministers in protest against same-sex blessings.
The Rev William Taylor, a leading figure of the Church’s evangelical wing, said that traditionalist Anglicans plan to organise unofficial ordinations next year.
It would represent a major escalation within the Church’s deepening divide over gay relationships because only bishops – the majority of whom support same-sex blessings – are allowed to ordain ministers.
The unofficial ordinations are expected to trigger a furious reaction from the Church of England’s hierarchy, which may refuse to recognise them as valid.
Mr Taylor, the rector of St Helen’s Bishopsgate in the City of London, said the ordinations were “absolutely” a part of the traditionalist clergy’s attempt to establish a “parallel province” for those opposed to same-sex blessings and gay marriage.
“They will be ordained in 2025 for sure,” he told The Pastor’s Heart, the Christian podcast, in an episode released on Tuesday.
The former Royal Green Jackets officer added: “All of this is contingent on whether the bishops determine to set up a separate structure for those who want to remain within the Church of England to operate within.
“If they set up a satisfactory structure and make what we call provision, then a service like this won’t be necessary.
“But my observation is that, to date, the bishops have wanted to hang on to their power rather than serve the churches. And so they’re very unwilling to let go of their power and I think it’s a great, great shame.”
Asked whether the move would be an expression of no confidence in the official Anglican ordination process, he said: “Yes, that’s right. That has to be the case.”
Mr Taylor is one of the foremost members of The Alliance, which is a coalition of conservatives opposed to same-sex blessings because they see it as a “departure from the doctrine of the Church of England in an essential matter”.
Church of England priests have been able to offer blessings to gay and lesbian couples during church services since February 2023 following a vote in the General Synod, the Church’s governing body.
Sources within The Alliance have distanced the group from Mr Taylor’s proposals but did not deny that some conservatives were planning unofficial ordinations.
‘No certain terms’
They said that further action for a separate province was “unlikely” until July when the Synod is expected to vote on whether to allow standalone same-sex blessing ceremonies that “effectively look like a wedding”.
“The Alliance is in discussions with the Bishop of Leicester, who is in charge of it all, and the Bishop is being left in no uncertain terms aware of what may happen if the vote happens in July at the Synod,” one source said.
It is unclear who would conduct any unofficial ordinations but a number of conservative bishops – serving and retired – are involved in the efforts to create a separate province for traditionalists.
In September, the Rt Rev Rod Thomas, the retired former Bishop of Maidstone, enlisted seven men “for Christian leadership in Church of England services” at St Helen’s in a “commissioning service”.
It is expected that those men would be a part of the unofficial ordinations.
The row over same-sex blessings and gay marriage has caused deep divisions within the Church of England, with battle lines having been drawn between liberals and conservatives.
Gay couples remain prohibited from getting married at Anglican churches and vicars are not officially allowed to be in civil partnerships, although this rule is not universally observed or enforced.
The Church of England declined to comment.
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