The Anglican Church will conduct same-sex marriages as early as 2016, according to a prominent liberal Church cleric, and he believes the Church should start pre-preparing liturgy now. Nelson has made the statement following an extremely close vote on a same-sex marriage motion put to the Anglican Synod earlier this month. 'Motion 6' sought to have Synod support the principle that the current definition of marriage as being "between a man and a woman" be extended to include "between a man and a man," and "between a woman and a woman." Reverend Clay Nelson, a Priest Associate at Auckland's St Matthews' In The City, which is home to a glbti church group and hosts many significant gay community functions, believes the passing of motion 6 is only a matter of time. “I do believe it will eventually pass, I hope no later than 2016,” he says. In the close voting the majority of clergy were in favour of the motion, with 80 in favour, 44 against and 4 abstentions. The Bishops also supported the motion. Amongst the laity, the voting just missed being a majority for same-sex marriage by one vote. 72 votes were in favour, 65 were against and there were 8 abstentions. The voting indicated a closing gap between those who oppose and those who agree with the church conducting same sex marriages. "While the motion lost on a technicality, it showed that the bishops and clergy strongly support the change and a majority of those in the house of laity voting supported it. This is all very encouraging," says Nelson. If and when motion 6, or its equivalent passes, the church will look into the task of “developing a liturgy for same sex marriage or modifying the present service so it can be used no matter what the genders of the couple are”, says Nelson. He believes that the work around preparing for such changes should begin now, so when it passes the church is ready to go with it.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 25th September 2013 - 9:49pm