Vicar bullish over gay 'wedding'

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An Anglican vicar who performed a "marriage" ceremony for two gay priests has insisted he has no regrets.

Writing for the New Statesman website, the Reverend Dr Martin Dudley said refusing to bless them "would have been a negation of everything I believe".

The couple - the Reverend Peter Cowell and the Reverend Dr David Lord - were already civil partners.

Critics say the service, held in May at St Bartholomew the Great Church in the City of London, broke guidelines.

'Amazing flowers'

Dr Dudley, who insisted he was "robustly heterosexual", wrote that he had not carried out the ceremony to provoke traditionalists.

"It is not we who have whipped up the whirlwind, replacing words of love and inclusion with those of hatred and exclusion," he added.

Nothing felt even vaguely inappropriate Dr Martin Dudley

He described the service as "not a gay rally or demonstration, but a truly joyful celebration".

"Amazing flowers, fabulous music, a ceremony both solemn and oddly homely, familiar words reordered and reconfigured, carrying new meanings.

"Nothing jarred, nothing felt even vaguely inappropriate. New and untried but not wrong."

The couple are said to have exchanged vows and rings in front of hundreds of guests in the event thought to be the first of its kind in the Anglican Church.

Anglicans worldwide are split over homosexuality and conservatives have condemned the service - which had no legal status - as blasphemous.

Critics say the wording of a traditional wedding expressly defines marriage as being between a man and a woman.

The Archbishop of Uganda, the Most Reverend Henry Orombi, told the Sunday Telegraph: "Our respect for the Church of England will erode unless we see a return to traditional teaching."

But liberals in the Church say the Bible should be reinterpreted in line with contemporary experience.

Under Church of England guidance, gay priests can enter civil partnerships as long as they remain celibate.

Guidance also says that gay couples who ask a priest to bless their partnership must be treated "pastorally and sensitively".

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