Following a meeting of the House of Bishops in London on 8 October 2023, the Church of England issued the following Press Release, extracts of which are reproduced below.

Prayers of Love and Faith: Bishops agree next steps to bring to Synod

09/10/2023

House of Bishops agrees to commend Prayers of Love and Faith

The Church of England’s House of Bishops has agreed in principle that prayers asking for God’s blessing for same-sex couples – known as Prayers of Love and Faith – should be commended for use.

The House, which met in London, also concluded that structures for special services for same-sex couples, based on Prayers of Love and Faith, should go forward to be formally authorised under canon law.

The bishops will bring proposals to General Synod next month which will pave the way for a process that would lead to the authorisation of these special services under Canon B2.

This process, expected to take until 2025, would involve consultation with every diocese and require approval by General Synod.

Bishops gave serious consideration to an alternative legal process which could have enabled special services to be authorised almost immediately – but temporarily – (under Canon B5A). This would still have required a further process for the services to be authorised permanently (under Canon B2) by Synod.

New draft pastoral guidance will be brought to next month’s meeting of Synod, setting out how the system could operate. Further work is already in progress on the second part of the Pastoral Guidance which will look at matters in the life and work of clergy and lay ministers.

Proposals for the Prayers of Love and Faith were discussed in an historic debate at the General Synod in February of this year. Synod called on the bishops to work on Pastoral Guidance and other arrangements needed to implement that decision.

The proposals will be discussed in detail at a meeting of General Synod in London on November 13 to 15.

At today’s meeting the bishops agreed that:

• The prayers and readings in Prayers of Love and Faith for use with same-sex couples will be commended by the House of Bishops for use in public worship.
• Special standalone services set out in Prayers of Love and Faith should be brought to the General Synod to decide whether to authorise them under Canon B2, after consultation with dioceses.
• There is also further work under way to explore further forms of pastoral reassurance and formal structural pastoral provision to ensure the conscience of everyone is respected.

The Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, who co-chaired the steering group which has brought the proposals forward, said: “The House of Bishops’ decisions today continue to implement Synod’s vote to recognise publicly the commitment of same-sex couples and to pray God’s blessing for them.

“They have agreed to commend Prayers of Love and Faith and also considered the best way to authorise special standalone services. Having carefully considering the legal, theological and pastoral implications of possible approaches, the bishops concluded that it would ultimately be clearer to proceed directly to consideration under Canon B2.

“We acknowledge that there are some who would like this process move faster, however the move to full authorisation will provide clarity and wide consultation ahead of a final decision by synod in 2025.

“I know that for some, these measures go too far and, for others, not nearly far enough and the bishops discussed the need for pastoral reassurance, and for some the need for formal structural pastoral provision.

“But the heart of the gospel is reconciliation – our desire is to remain together as one Church in our uncertainty, finding ways to live well with our different perspectives and convictions.”

On 12 October 2023, Thinking Anglicans reported 12 bishops dissent from Monday’s statement by the House of Bishops. On whether these dissenting bishops are representative of the House of Bishops, in the Comments to this piece, Peter Owen states:

“There are actually 53 members of the House of Bishops: 42 diocesans, 9 elected suffragans, the Bishop of Dover and the Bishop to the Forces. In addition 9 other bishops are in attendance; they can speak but not vote. Details are here. Two of the signatories (Ebbsfleet and Oswestry) are in this last category. PS There are several vacancies at present”.

Not all signatories of the statement are members of the House of Bishops.

Updated, 13 October 2023 at 06:26.