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UK News

'No problem' with election of gay vicar Revd Andrew Foreshew-Cain to General Synod

It has clarified the position of Revd Andrew Foreshew-Cain, a vicar elected to the Church's ruling body despite having defied teaching and entered a gay marriage.

There had been calls for him to be removed from the Synod.

At the time Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern, said his "ongoing activism should no longer be tolerated".

She called for him to be "swiftly removed from church leadership" and claimed his election to the Synod "cannot be allowed to stand".

But in a media briefing ahead of the first meeting of the new Synod in November the Church said it was unaware of any newly elected members who were not eligible.

The Secretary General of the Synod, William Fittall, said questions about eligibility were addressed before any voting took place and at a diocesan level.

He added that any questions surrounding the suitability of a candidate was for the electorate to decide.

Revd Andrew Foreshew-Cain said he was "feeling daunted, elated and ready", after the results for the Diocese of London were announced.

He was the first serving vicar to reject the Church's rules and marry his same sex partner in 2014, after the House of Bishops ordered Anglican clergy in England not to enter gay marriages.

At the time officials said it would not be "appropriate conduct".

In a tweet announcing his election he said there was "hope for a kinder more compassionate Church".

Revd Foreshew-Cain is the vicar at St Mary with All Souls church in Kilburn, and St James in West Hampstead.

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