01 December 2011
The House of Bishops has announced the membership of a Group
established to advise it on reviewing its Pastoral
Statement issued prior to the introduction of civil partnerships in
December 2005. The Group will be chaired by the Bishop of Sodor and
Man, the Rt Rev Robert Paterson. The other two members of the Group
are the Bishop of Portsmouth, the Rt Rev Christopher Foster, and
the Bishop of Dorchester, the Rt Rev Colin Fletcher. The Group will
start work in December and report to the House in
time for the House to reach conclusions during 2012.
The preparation of the pastoral statement was the last occasion
when the House of Bishops devoted substantial time to the issue of
same sex relationships. The House undertook to keep that Pastoral
Statement under review and announced in July, this year, http://www.churchofengland.org/media/1289380/gsmisc997.pdf
, that the time had come for a review to take
place.
The House of Bishops also announced in July further work on the
Church of England's approach to human sexuality more
generally. The expectation is that the membership of
that Group, whose work will be considered by the House during
2013, will be announced in the next few weeks.