Dean of St Albans, Jeffrey John is @Out4Marriage

Jeffrey John is currently the Dean of St Albans. He would have been a Bishop now except for two facts. He is gay and he is honest about it.

I used to know Jeffrey when he was a Parish Priest in London back in the 1990s. He actually conduct my own wedding and has long been a supporter of homsexual relationships being regarded in the same way by the Church as heterosexual ones. Back in 1993 he wrote a book entitled Permanent, Faithful, Stable: Christian same-sex partnerships.

Jeffrey has been in a relationship with a fellow clergyman called Grant since Theological college. A relationship he has always been completely honest about.

A new updated version of this book with with a slightly different title has been published this year, now called Permanent, Faithful, Stable: Christian same-sex marriage. The difference is the word marriage rather than partnership and this shows the progress made since 1993.

Well the progress made by civil society that is. As a High Church Anglican (part of the Affirming Catholicism movement) Jeffrey has always had a strong doctrine of the Church regarding it as important as central to christianity. It therefore says a lot that he basically says in the Preface of his new book and in the video below that the Church is wrong and should be ignored:



The You Tube video is part of the Out4Marriage campaign that is supporting the proposed change in the law to allow homosexual couples to marry in the same way as heterosexual ones.

I think Jeffrey gives a powerful message in favour of gay marriage. I know he feels that the Church should actually be leading this campaign rather than opposing it.

It is sad that despite the progress of the last 20 years the recent bed and breakfast case and opposition to gay marriage shows that there is still a way to go in equal rights for homosexuals.

I think the Church of England has rather shot itself in the foot with Jeffrey John though. An outstanding scholar, priest and public speaker he would have made a brilliant Bishop and who knows might have even been in contention for Canterbury now.

Discrimination is not only wrong it also damages those doing the discriminating as the tale of Jeffrey John shows.