Britain’s only openly married gay vicar has been elected to the Church of England’s General Synod, and will use his position to “advocate for a church that faces up to issues of sexuality in a honest and compassionate way”.
Andrew Foreshew-Cain, the vicar of St Mary with All Souls, Kilburn and St James, West Hampstead, said he was “pleased but shocked” at his election in the London section of the nationwide ballot to the church’s governing body. “I wasn’t expecting to get on – I thought the clergy were too conservative to vote for a progressive like me,” he told the Guardian.
His election reflected a hope “for a more inclusive and tolerant church”, he added. “People would not have voted for me if they didn’t want to see the change we represent.”
The number of votes cast for individuals is not disclosed.
Another gay vicar, Bertrand Olivier of All Hallows by the Tower, in the City of London, was also elected after what he described as a “polarising” contest.
“The next five years will be quite important as the Church of England continues to consider how it deals with gay marriage as the rest of the world moves on,” he said.
Later this week Jeremy Pemberton, a gay hospital chaplain who is awaiting the outcome of an industrial tribunal against the church, will find out if his bid for a synod seat has been successful. Pemberton, a divorced father of five children who married his partner in April 2014, was stripped of his right to officiate and a job offer was withdrawn, triggering his discrimination case.
Foreshew-Cain, who married his long-term partner, Stephen, an atheist, last June, has been “informally rebuked” by his diocese, but no action has been taken against him. The church says it supports clergy in same-sex civil partnerships, but marriage is a union of a man and a woman.
At least five vicars had married their same-sex partners, but were not open about it, fearing negative consequences and adverse reaction from bishops and congregations, Foreshew-Cain said. The church was “guilty of terrible dishonesty” on the issue, he added.
As well as campaigning on gay rights within the church, Foreshew-Cain said he also wanted to press for the re-establishment of the synod’s authority. “I fear we’ve seen an episcopal power-grab over the synod,” he said.
Andrea Williams of Christian Concern said Foreshew-Cain should not be allowed to take his seat. “Andrew Cain’s ongoing activism should no longer be tolerated. His actions are designed to undermine the church and her teaching on marriage. This result should not be recognised and he should be swiftly removed from church leadership,” she said in a statement.
In total, 851 people have contested 406 seats in the clergy and lay sections of the synod. A third of lay candidates were women. In London, 27 clergy competed for 11 places. Those elected serve a five-year term.
