A LEADING Ceredigion churchman has explained why he is opposed to same-sex marriage in the very week Church in Wales bishops maintained the church must be a place where gay and lesbian people can be “honest and open, respected and affirmed”.

Dr Will Strange, Archdeacon of Cardigan, said that while he was ‘out-of-step’ with church leaders on the issue, his views were shared by 62 per cent of clergy and 61 per cent of lay people across the diocese of St Davids.

“I believe that the Bible does not permit gay marriage and the Bible’s teachings are quite clear on this,” Dr Strange, who lives at Cwmann, near Lampeter, told the Cambrian News.

“According to those teachings, sexual relationships should only take place within a marriage between a man and woman and the vast majority of Christians around the world adhere to that belief.

“I would say that anything that obscures or muddies our traditional doctrine of a man and woman marrying for life is not a good thing.”

Dr Strange was giving his response to a joint pastoral letter from church leaders arising from consultations and debates on same-sex marriage across the Church in Wales last year, as well as to a statement from the Primates of the Anglican Communion in January.

In the letter, the bishops acknowledge that, while the consultations showed that the Church was not yet ready to allow or bless same-sex marriage, the debate was not over.

They commit to working for a Church in which gay and lesbian people are “fully affirmed as equal disciples” and to praying with and for them.

They also apologise to gay and lesbian people for the persecution and mistreatment they have endured at the hands of the Church and commit themselves to providing a safe place within the Church for all gay and lesbian people.

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