Editors note: During Friday’s, 20 January 2023, press conference in London presenting the House of Bishops recommendations on the Living in Love and Faith process, the Archbishop of York, the Most Rev. Stephen Cottrell was asked by a reporter: “Do you think that gay sex in the context of a loving, committed lifelong relationship is a sin?”
The Archbishop of York responded in part: ” … as I imagine this going forward if people who have entered into a same-sex civil marriage come to the church seeking one of these services of love and faith in the same way that actually with heterosexual couples, who come seeking Holy Matrimony and one notices, they have the same address for instance when they fill in the forms, I don’t ask them questions about it. I celebrate the fact that they are wanting to commit themselves in a stable, loving relationship. I believe the great gift of sexual and physical intimacy to be cherished belongs in stable, loving, committed relationships. And therefore, I will celebrate the fact that people are living that way and expressing their intimacy that way.”
