Rector faces the sack after holding Britain’s first gay ‘wedding’ in an Anglican church

By Tom Kelly, Paul Sims and Ben Clerkin
Last updated at 8:33 AM on 16th June 2008

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Reverend Martin Dudley sparked fury by blessing two gay priests in a service that used a traditional wedding liturgy

A rector faces the sack after becoming the first clergyman to conduct a gay ‘marriage’ in an Anglican church.

The Rev Martin Dudley flouted Church of England rules by blessing two homosexual priests in a service that used a traditional wedding liturgy in which the couple exchanged vows and rings.

Details of the ceremony provoked fury among many senior ministers and fuelled the row over gay clergy which already threatens to tear apart the worldwide Anglican church.

Last night the Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres, ordered an urgent inquiry into the ceremony, which was held last month in one of the capital’s oldest churches, St Bartholomew the Great.

He said: ‘Services of public blessings for civil partnerships are not authorised in the Church of England or the Diocese of London. I will be asking the Archdeacon of London to investigate what took place.’

If Mr Dudley is found to have broken church rules he faces potential disciplinary action ranging from a rebuke to dismissal.

Last night he insisted he had no regrets about the service, saying: ‘It seems to me
that Jesus would have been sitting in the congregation.’ But one of the two men he blessed has already quit as a Anglican minister following the furore surrounding the service.

The Rev Dr David Lord, a medic who was ordained in his native New Zealand last December, issued a joint statement with the Bishop of Waikato announcing he ‘felt it appropriate to lay down his clergy licence’.

The doctor met the Rev Peter Cowell, 50, after the former started working at St Bartholomew’s hospital in London five years ago. Cambridge-educated Mr Cowell is the hospital chaplain and a priest at Westminster Abbey, one of the Queen’s churches.

The couple had registered their civil partnership before the blessing on May 30.

Details of the service emerged days before a crucial summit of the Anglican Church’s conservative bishops and archbishops who threaten to split the church over the issue of gay clergy.

Union: Rev Dr David Lord (left) and Rev Peter Cowell exchanged vows and rings in at the blessing, which is now the subject of an urgent inquiry

Yesterday the Archbishop of Uganda, the Most Rev Henry Orombi, said the ceremony was ‘blasphemous’. 

He added: ‘The leadership tried to deny that this would happen, but now the truth is out. Our respect for the Church of England will erode unless we see a return to traditional teaching.’

Alison Rouff, a member of the General Synod, told BBC News last night: ‘These clergy, in my opinion, not only do they need to be disciplined by the Bishop of London but frankly if I had my way they would all be defrocked.’

However, Mr Dudley insisted he had not performed a wedding service and said the traditional marriage liturgy was significantly altered for the occasion, which he described as ‘glorious’.

St Bartholomew the Great is one of London’s oldest churches

He said: ‘I was asked by a friend and colleague to bless their civil partnership. I said “Of course I will”. 

‘Peter is a dear friend and I have gay friends and one respects them for who they are. It seemed perfectly reasonable. I certainly didn’t do it to defy my bishop or to make a statement, I did it as a matter of pastoral care for someone for whom I have a very high regard.’

‘I know about the bishops’ guidelines and I disagree with them. It just seems to me to be utter hypocrisy to deny the fact that there are significant numbers of gay men and women within the church and significant numbers of gay clergy.’ 

Anglicanism has been under pressure from traditionalists over the issue of gay clergy since the 2003 consecration of the first openly homosexual bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has banned formal blessings of same-sex partnerships. Under guidelines issued by the House of Bishops in 2005 clergy are allowed to enter into civil partnerships if they assure their bishop they are celibate. 

The Rev Benny Hazlehurst, of Accepting Evangelicals, an Anglican group supporting gay rights, said: ‘We’ve been making the argument for some time for the acceptance of same sex, loving relationships. Blessing of civil partnerships can only be a good thing in that context.’ 

A Church of England source described the case as ‘highly complicated’. He said Mr Cowell was employed by the NHS and suggested he could escape any sanctions.

Trumpets, vows… and two best men

Even with a history stretching back to the 12th century, St Bartholomew the Great had never seen anything quite like it.

With 300 relatives and friends squeezed into the pews, the Rev Peter Cowell and the Rev Dr David Lord made a dramatic entrance accompanied by a fanfare of trumpets, followed by the choir bursting into song in Latin.

With bridesmaids and two best men – one for each groom – following behind, the couple walked up the aisle to Mendelssohn’s march from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

As the smell of incense burning on the high altar wafted around, the Rev Martin Dudley started the traditional service, based on the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

He announced: ‘Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God to join these men in a holy covenant of love and fidelity. Such a covenant shows us the mystery of the union between God and God’s people and between Christ and the Church.’ 

Dr Lord was supported by relatives from his native New Zealand, who enthusiastically joined in the hymns which included Praise My Soul the King of Heaven and All My Hope On God Is Founded. Mr Cowell’s 84-year-old mother, Marie, read from the Book of 1 Corinthians.

The couple affectionately exchanged vows, pledging to each other to ‘hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part’.

As Mr Cowell placed a ring on the fourth finger of his partner’s hand, he continued: ‘With this ring I thee bind, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow: in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.’ 

They then recited poems from Shakespeare and Philip Sidney.

A reception was held at the Great Hall of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, where there was a ten-tier wedding cake. 

St Bartholomew the Great, founded by the Normans in 1123, has featured in a number of films including Shakespeare In Love and Four Weddings And A Funeral.