Marriage, same-sex marriage and the blessing of same-sex relationships

Movers Stead, M

Bishop Michael Stead moving, The Rev’d Canon Professor Dorothy Lee seconding

The General Synod –
(i) recognises that the doctrine of our church, in line with traditional Christian teaching, is that marriage is an exclusive and lifelong union of a man and a woman, and further,
(ii) recognises that this has been the subject of several General Synod resolutions over the past fifteen years, and also
(iii) recognises that the nature of marriage is the subject of ongoing conversation within the church and wider community and that we need to listen to each other with care and respect, and
(iv) acknowledges the experiences and genuine concerns of LGBTIQ+ people within the church and the community, and therefore
(v) asks the Doctrine Commission to facilitate a respectful conversation in our church by means of a collection of essays on marriage and same-sex relationships that explores Scriptural and theological issues relating to:
a. The doctrine of marriage expressed in the formularies of the Anglican Church of Australia
b. Our current Australian context, exploring the relationship between the State’s definition of marriage and the church’s doctrine of marriage
c. Key Old Testament and New Testament texts on sex, marriage and friendship
d. Scripture and hermeneutics
e. A theology of blessing
f. A theology of desire
g. Godly disagreement on this issue
h. The case for and against same-sex marriage and/or the blessing of same-sex unions.
7 September 2017

Resolution year: 2017
Resolution number: 48/17