Gay UK Anglican priests get married

LONDON - A priest who was at the centre of a furore over homosexuality in the Church of England has entered a civil partnership with his long term partner, another male priest, gay activists said yesterday.

Conservatives in the Church of England reacted to the news with dismay and said it would aggravate the row over homosexuality in the Anglican Communion, the loose federation of Anglican churches worldwide.

Jeffrey John, dean of St Albans, entered into the civil partnership with Grant Hollings, a Church of England chaplain, in a ceremony at a register office in southern England last week, the activists told Reuters.

Britain introduced the partnerships for same-sex couples last December, with the same legal rights as heterosexual marriage. They are widely referred to as "gay marriages" although the law does not call them that.

John and Hollings have been together for many years and say their relationship is celibate. Under Church of England rules, clergy are allowed to declare themselves gay and enter a civil partnership, as long as they disavow practising gay sex.

John is thought to be the most senior member of the Church of England clergy to enter into a civil partnership, and is certainly the most controversial.

In 2003 he was nominated to become the Church's first openly gay bishop, but withdrew at the request of Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams after an outcry from conservatives.

Martin Reynolds, spokesman for the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, confirmed the news of John's partnership and acknowledged it would reignite arguments over homosexual clergy.

"Sadly, I'm sure there will be a visceral reaction from around the world," he told Reuters. "It is significant, mostly for the reaction which I'm sure it will invite."

Church of England traditionalists, already dismayed by the decision of Anglicans in the United States to nominate a gay man as a bishop, acknowledged that celibate civil partnerships did not break church rules, but said they were alarmed.

"Although formally he (John) has broken no Church of England rules... his action at a time of crisis for the Anglican Communion can only make things much worse," said Rod Thomas, spokesman for conservative group Reform.

"It's only a short step from here to the Church of England going down the same route as the American church, with such disastrous consequences."

- REUTERS