Quote:
"[marriage]... is a "gift of God in creation" in which a man and a woman may know the grace of God and, in this way, be united "as Christ is united with his bride, the Church". It is "a way of life made holy by God" and blessed by Christ's attendance at just such a union at Cana, in Galilee. And one of its three sacramental purposes is "the increase of mankind", put more bluntly in the Book of Common Prayer as "the procreation of children", reflected in the conjugality of the two sexes that enter into marriage.
That is just what it is. We may, as a society and as a Church, want to change it into something else, and we are at liberty to do so....
A measure of the paucity of the debate so far is that supporters of gay marriage have been allowed to pretend that all we're doing at a church wedding is celebrating the commitment of two people who love each other. That's not true. Yes, love is the fuel that drives the engine of marriage, but marriage itself is doing and representing other spiritual and societal things..."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/15/bleeding-heart-liberal-cleric-but-church-england-must-not-accept2/