‘I do not want to die in a Church that will not marry same-sex couples’ says OTN Patron Bishop Paul Bayes
Bishop Paul addressed more than 8000 marchers at Pride in Liverpool in 2017
LAST SATURDAY, the Bishop of Liverpool, Right Revd Paul Bayes, retired. In an interview with the Church Times this week, he speaks candidly about his ministry and hopes for the future of the church.
Bishop Paul has had a significant role in the story of the Open Table Network, from his first visit to the Liverpool community in 2015, to becoming a Patron of the Network in 2020. His advocacy for the LGBTQIA+ community locally, nationally & internationally has been exemplary.
In conversation with Madeleine Davies at the Church Times, he described himself as ‘an old man in a hurry’.
‘I do not want to die in a Church that will not marry same-sex couples… God willing, I will live for another 20 years, but, at the moment, it doesn’t look like we are going to get there then.’
The Archbishop of York, in his tribute to Bishop Paul at the Church of England’s governing body, General Synod, said Bishop Paul has been ‘a great advocate for championing LGBTI+ voices.’
‘This has not always made you popular. Yet it has never deterred you from speaking with passion, conviction, determination, often at personal cost.’
Bishop of Liverpool speaks in Church of England General Synod conversion therapy debate July 2017
In July 2017, Bishop Paul spoke passionately in the General Synod debate on conversion therapy:
‘the world needs to hear us say that LGBTI+ orientation and identity is not a crime, not a sickness, and not a sin… And if the Church suggests that really, actually, it is [a sickness], then our many statements opposing homophobia are cancelled, and the world will think that in face we really do believe LGBTI people to be second class humans, no matter how they behave’.
From December 2017 until last month, he chaired the Ozanne Foundation, set up to tackle discrimination in religious organisations.
Bishop Paul addressing more than 8000 marchers at Liverpool Pride in July 2017 [4 minutes]
In 2017 Bishop Paul became a Patron of the Liverpool City Region [LCR}’s Pride charity. He walked with the Christians At Pride In Liverpool group in 2017 and 2018, and attended a Pride celebration at Liverpool Cathedral in 2018 and 2019. In 2021 he recorded a video message for LCR Pride’s MarchONline [from 13:40 for 3 minutes].
He has advocated for many years that same-sex unions should be ‘recognised and affirmed’ in the Church, then in July 2021 he called for ‘a gender-neutral marriage canon’, and
‘conscientious freedom for the Church’s ministers and local leaders to honour, recognise, and, yes indeed, to bless same-sex unions, whether civil partnerships or civil marriages’.
In September 2021, when the Church in Wales voted to enable the blessing of same-sex civil partnerships and marriages, he welcomed a ‘creative and gospel-inspired lead’ for the Church of England.
In response to suggestions that his imminent retirement has enabled him to speak more boldly, he told the Church Times this week:
‘I’ve been radicalised by the oppression of LGBTI people, not necessarily by the Church, but by the world. I’ve had it with the Church adding to the pain of this marginalised community by saying that we can’t even discuss the possibility of welcoming and affirming blessing and marrying.’
