Church of England Grants Full Pension Rights to Gay Clergy

The Church of England’s governing body has passed a motion in favor of giving civil partners of deceased gay clergy the same pension entitlements as heterosexual widows or widowers.
The motion was put forward by the Rev. Mark Bratton, priest at St John the Baptist church in Berkwell, near Coventry. It asks the Church of England Pensions Board to go beyond the requirements of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 and pay pension benefits to surviving civil partners of deceased clergy on the same basis as surviving spouses.
Under the terms of the act, surviving civil partners are not entitled to benefits if their deceased partner ceased pensionable service before December 2005. At present, a widow or widower is entitled to a pension based on all of their deceased spouse’s pensionable service.
“On what basis does the Church believe it just to treat a civil partner of long-standing as inferior in pension provision to a spouse who may have been married to a scheme member for only a very short time?” he said.
“It is rationally indefensible to refuse a change to the clergy pension scheme to benefit a civil partner of long-standing solely on the grounds of status.”
His motion was supported by the Bishop of Lincoln, the Rt. Rev. John Saxbee, who said the church should “honor people with a justifiable claim now.”
“It is not a question of whether we can afford to do it, but whether we can afford not to do it,” he said. “The reputational damage done that can be done in missional terms is something that we cannot afford.”
Missional terms?  Maybe they should read the Bible before they redefine their mission.