Archbishop of Canterbury would attend a gay wedding, despite voting against them
Secretary of State for Justice Michael Gove has asked the current Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby what he would do if his children were gay.
Mr Gove was interviewing the Archbishop for The Spectator, and the minister challenged Welby on a number of subjects including the conflict between the the Church of England and an increasingly more secular society and the recent controversy around a Church of England backed Lords Prayer cinema advert.
The minister described the Archbishop in positive terms for most of the interview, but when the subject turned to LGBT equality Mr Gove bluntly asked Welby what he would do if his children were gay.
“Would I pray for them together? You bet I would, absolutely.” the Archbishop answered.
“Would I pray with them together? If they wanted me to. If they had a civil service of marriage, would I attend? Of course I would.”
After Mr Gove further pushed the Archbishop on the subject, asking if he would still describe his childrens same-sex relationships as “sinful or inappropriate”, Welby answered “I would say, ‘I will always love you, full stop. End of sentence, end of paragraph.’
“Whatever they say, I will say I always love them.”
Welby has been under pressure from members on both sides of the issue in the Anglican Church, and has spoken out against divisions and called for ‘crisis’ talks amongst leaders in the Church.
Back in February Welby revealed that he believed that he was in no position to judge gay people, saying “I see my own selfishness and weakness and think who am I judge them for their sins, if they have sins.”
He then went on to say that “Marriage is between one man and one woman for life and sexual activity should be confined to marriage, that’s in the Church of England’s laws.”
Michael Gove was a strong supporter of marriage eqaulity and has spoken out against homophobic bullying in schools.
