Sir, – Loud disapproval from church spokesmen often greets any suggestion that same sex couples have a right to more than civil partnership, ie to the same legal entitlements and respect enjoyed by male-female couples. But such critics by no means speak for all church people.
As a Church of Ireland pro-gay group, Changing Attitude Ireland supports the extension of civil marriage to same sex couples. We proclaim that if a church truly believes in equality then it should not introduce caveats to lessen that equality. Behind the denial to a gay or lesbian couple of the right to avail of civil marriage is the belief that their relationship is inferior to a heterosexual one. This we believe to be a cultural assumption rather than a divine instruction. We suggest that in the foreseeable future objectors to same sex civil marriage will be seen in the same light as those who until fairly recently opposed mixed marriage and mixed-race marriage.
As regards religious marriage, the Church of Ireland has overcome past objections to divorce and now offers remarriage in church. Having accepted both remarriage and contraception for its heterosexual members, the Church of Ireland appears now to be attempting to pull up the moral drawbridge before its gay and lesbian members.
We call on our church to embrace civil equality for all and also to forego the fundamentalist biblicist arguments that led us astray in the past. – Yours, etc,