Church of England falling apart - two gay priests marry each other

The Revds Peter Cowell and David Lord engaged in a civil partnership ... and had their relationship blessed in church afterward by the Rev. Martin Dudley, who explains his decision here.

It is not we who have whipped up the whirlwind, replacing words of love and inclusion with those of hatred and exclusion. We set out to express, experimentally, pushing at boundaries, a love of a type which is not unusual or perverse but which is perfectly ordinary and accepted outside the Church. Why, then, can it not be accepted inside the community that is based, not on law, but on the loving presence of God in Jesus Christ?

Those who cannot ever accept same-sex unions and would rather divide from those who do, branding them as blasphemous and unchristian, have inevitably turned on us, and especially on me. I am clearly not naïve, so I must have been malicious, politically-motivated, intent on pushing forward my ungodly agenda. Every aspect of my life and ministry is being raked over, the Daily Mail’s old allegations of sexual impropriety, my failure to be elected as an alderman, my writing a book on clergy discipline, even the complaint from neighbouring flats that I will not silence the church clock which chimes at midnight and again at seven as it has for centuries. First discredit your opponent, then defrock him, and, as he is Rector of Smithfield, why not the stake?

I did not seek the role, the interviews, the publicity, but more than thirty years ago I began a journey, a process of becoming, that focuses on Jesus the Christ, not as lawgiver and judge but as the one who loves us and holds us and will not let us go until we know ourselves as loved by him despite our foolishness and imperfections, and because of that, when Peter Cowell asked me, I did not hesitate, not even for a moment to answer “Yes, I will.”

The service took place in St. Bartholomew's, a prominent church. However, there are those who say that these ceremonies have happened in England before.

The shouting and screaming has already started, with their bishop calling the act reckless and self-indulgent (wow!). Bishop Chartres has started an investigation, I believe.

It's really too bad there isn't this much shouting and screaming over, say, the genocide in Darfur.

Pray for the people of Darfur. And for Peter and David.