Responding to Prayers of Love and Faith

The clergy and Parochial Church Council of St Andrew's Kirk Ella believe that all people are created in the image of God. Therefore, we extend a warm welcome to everyone, irrespective of their gender, race, nationality, socio-economic background, marital status or sexual orientation. Indeed, our church family is diverse in every way with people drawn from all kinds of backgrounds and with all kinds of pasts, all of whom have found a safe spiritual home at St Andrew's. 

As a Church of England church we hold to the Church of England's clear teaching on marriage and sexual intimacy. That is, that marriage was given to humanity by God as the exclusive union between one man and one woman, and that the only proper place for sexual intimacy is within such a marriage. This is the teaching found in the Bible and throughout the Church across the world and in every generation. It is only this kind of union that God blesses.

It is clear that some within the Church of England, including the Archbishop of York, are seeking to change the church's teaching on marriage and sexual intimacy, and are seeking to bless types of relationship that God does not bless. We cannot stand with them. We stand with those who seek to live in obedience to God, irrespective of their sexual orientation.

On 20th January 2023, the House of Bishops of the Church of England issued proposals to allow prayers for blessing sexual relationships outside the confines of Biblical marriage. On 22nd January, the Archbishop of York appeared on Radio 4 to strongly commend the prayers and the process that has led us to this point. 

The following letter is a response, from both love and faith, for Anglicanism, for orthodoxy and for the good of the Church and her mission. 

2023 02 03 Letter to the Archbishop of York.pdf