The Archbishop of Canterbury has said he would attend the gay wedding of one of his own children, despite his church opposing same-sex marriage.
Archbishop Justin Welby said in an interview that if one of his five children asked for his blessing for a gay marriage, he would pray with them and attend the ceremony.
The Daily Mail reported that he also refused to say that a gay relationship was “sinful or inappropriate”, insisting he would “always love ” his children, whatever their sexuality.
The interview was done by UK Justice Secretary Michael Gove and it appeared in The Spectator magazine.
Two of the archbishop’s children are married to spouses of the opposite sex.
Same-sex marriage was legalised in the UK in 2013, but the law stated that gay weddings could not happen in Church of England churches.
During parliamentary debate leading up to the law change, Archbishop Welby warned the legislation would “weaken” the idea of the “’family in its normal sense”.
Asked by Mr Gove how he would react if one of his children asked for his blessing for a same-sex relationship, Archbishop Welby said: “Would I pray for them together? You bet I would, absolutely.”
“Would I pray with them together? If they wanted me to. If they had a civil service of marriage, would I attend? Of course I would.”
Mr Gove challenged him on the views of some evangelicals and asked if he would tell his child that while he loved them “their relationship was sinful or inappropriate”.
But Archbishop Welby hit back: “I would say, ‘I will always love you, full stop. End of sentence, end of paragraph.’ Whatever they say, I will say I always love them.”
Mr Gove stated that Archbishop Welby has helped to change the “caricature” that the Church of England is “morally relativist, ethically vague, painfully politically correct and timorously unassertive”.
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