Wales' new Archbishop, has said that same-sex couples could be blessed in wedding ceremonies in the churches in five years. Reverend Andrew John said that the Church in Wales should be an inclusive place and should "welcome people, where they are, who they are."
Last year, the Church voted to allow couples to have their civil partnerships blessed and recognised. Blessings for weddings are slowly being introduced for an 'experimental' period of 5 years. However, individual clergy are able to opt-out if they don't agree with the ceremony taking place. Read More: 'Cardiff Labour council candidate stands by anti-trans comments despite criticism'
The new Archbishop told the BBC t hat he would be "radical" in his new role but not a politician. He said that the decision made him "enormously heartened." Last year, the Church in Wales passed legislation with a two-thirds majority allowing the experiment to be carried out.
"Although it wasn't unanimous - it showed the Church in Wales has a common mind on this," he said. We need to make the journey and we then need to have the debate… and when we do that I think we'll find ourselves looking back and thinking perhaps the concern or the trouble, real and sincere as it was, wasn't a real problem. I wouldn't be surprised if, within that five-year period, we were once again talking about the marriage of same-sex couples."
Same-sex marriages are currently not allowed in both the Church of England and the Church of Scotland. The Scottish Episcopal Church voted to allow gay couples to marry in churches in 2017, making it the first major Christian church in the UK to allow same-sex marriages to take place. The new Archbishop also addressed the Church's negative past, stating that it has "let people down" in the past.
"We failed to admit our shortcomings, preferring at times to protect our reputation about the individual's damage, by our neglect. We do owe an apology to those we have failed and we make that apology unreservedly," he said.
The new head of the Church in Wales said it also had to listen to its own message, adding that the Church had made mistakes in the past on issues such as safeguarding children. "We don't have an unblemished record when it comes to the use and misuse of power. We've let people down. Survivors of abuse, for example. It's not only the Church that needs to learn the language of apology, however. Our national life, political and cultural, needs to be shaped in a way that inspires confidence. So that when mistakes are made, when deliberate wrongs are done, we acknowledge truthfully our own part."
