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Church of England General Synod extends pension rights for gay partners

This article is more than 14 years old
Decision is at odds with church's reputation for homophobia and sees off wrecking amendments by conservative elements

The Church of England may not allow its clergy to have their civil ­partnerships blessed in church but it voted tonight to allow the survivors of same-sex ­partnerships the same pension rights as other spouses.

The church's General Synod, meeting in London, voted in favour of what supporters of the move described as ­big-heartedness at odds with the church's public reputation for homophobia in its wrangles over gay clergy.

In doing so, members saw off a wrecking amendment by conservative evangelicals to extend equal pension rights to all clergy relatives who might have lived in their households for five years. A move by bishops that, instead of equal pensions rights, partners should be allowed to apply for hardship grants was also seen off.

Although the church does not allow services for same-sex clergy and requires them to give assurances to their bishops that their relationships are chaste, it had conceded the principle that civil ­partners should receive pension rights – but only from December 2005 when the civil ­partnerships legislation came into force. This means surviving partners in long-term relationships would lose out for many years to come.

Moving the motion, the Rev Mark Bratton of Coventry diocese said: "The injustice of the current arrangement is obvious. The benefit to the reputation of the church in remedying this injustice will be great and … inversely proportional to the small cost to the pension scheme involved."

It is not known how many clergy have entered civil partnerships, but the inequity was spelled out by Simon Baynes, a synod member from St Albans diocese. He told the meeting that the dean of St Albans, Jeffrey John – who was denied a bishopric by Rowan Williams, the ­archbishop of Canterbury, seven years ago after ­protests by evangelicals because he had been in a same-sex partnership for many years – would receive only £3,370 a year after his partner, also a clergyman, died, whereas if he had married a woman a few days before his death, she would receive an annual ­pension of £7,550.

Baynes said: "Employers who pay as little as they can get away with are the nastiest and the church should not be among them. The church would look very mean."

The change was supported by John Saxbee, the bishop of Lincoln, who said: "Prudence is not another word for parsimony. This will be a good act in a naughty world."

The Rev Stephen Coles, a gay priest from London diocese, told the synod that extending pensions to other relatives would be "a licence for gold-diggers and gigolos".

The Church of England's clergy pension fund had a deficit of £350m at the end of 2008.

Paying pensions has cost the church 40% of its capital base and clergy have been told that to qualify for a full pension they will have to work three years longer and retired at 68, not 65 as at present.

Meanwhile, the Rev David Gamble, the president of the Methodist Conference, told the synod his church would be prepared to lose its separate identity and become part of the Anglican communion. The two churches have discussed entering a covenant together for some time though without reaching final agreement. Gamble told the synod: "We are prepared to go out of existence not because we are declining or failing in mission, but for the sake of mission. In other words we are prepared to be changed and even to cease having a separate existence as a church if that will serve the needs of the Kingdom [of God]."

This article was amended on 12 February 2010. The original gave Jeffrey John's projected pension, as a clergyman's partner, as £307. This has been corrected.

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