The Pelvic Inquisition

The Church of England is putting into place a plan to ask probing questions of candidates for the episcopate. Gay or lesbian clergy in civil partnerships, and divorced candidates (to avoid the appearance of discrimination), will have to satisfy their inquisitors that they are not engaging in acts that church teaching defines as sinful. It isn't clear to me from the reports if mixed-sex married couples will come under such scrutiny. Only sex seems to be on the menu in this regard, so they will not face a quiz on their trips to the buffet of pride, envy, sloth, and so on. The concern of the Church of England tends to the pelvical rather than the ethical.

That being said, I wonder, once same-sex marriage becomes legal — which could happen within a few weeks, it seems — if someone will dig up reference to another teaching of the Church of England on the subject of marriage, as stated in the Articles of Religion (XXXII):

Of the Marriage of Priests
Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, are not commanded by God's Law, either to vow the estate of single life, or to abstain from marriage: therefore it is lawful for them, as for all other Christian men, to marry at their own discretion, as they shall judge the same to serve better to godliness.

Emphasis mine. Perhaps before the inquisition begins, the judgment of the individual concerning his or her own life should be placed above that of the inquisitors.

Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG