Mpho Tutu van Furth, who is an Anglican priest in the Diocese of Washington DC in the United States, was barred by the Church of England from leading a funeral in Britain because she is married to a woman.
She had been asked to officiate at the funeral of her late godfather, Martin Kenyon, in Shropshire on Thursday.
The BBC reports that the Church of England does not permit its clergy to be in a same-sex marriage because its official teaching is that marriage is only between one man and one woman. However its sister Anglican church in the US, the Episcopal Church, does allow clergy to enter into gay marriages.
Tutu van Furth said the Church of England decision ‘seemed really churlish and hurtful’.
The Diocese of Hereford said in a statement: ‘Advice was given in line with the House of Bishops current guidance on same-sex marriage.’ The statement said this was ‘a difficult situation’.
However, the former Bishop of Liverpool, Paul Bayes, who is a campaigner for the church to change its position on sexuality, said that to ‘plead that things are difficult is not good enough’.
After Mr Kenyon’s family was told of the Church’s decision, they moved the funeral service from St Michael and All Angels in Wentnor, near Bishops Castle, to a marquee in the vicarage next door so that Tutu van Furth could officiate and preach.
Tutu van Furth told the BBC: ‘It feels like a bureaucratic response with maybe a lack of compassion.’
[Image: https://bummyla.wordpress.com/2016/05/25/desmond-tutus-daughter-reverend-canon-mpho-tutu-van-furth-loses-south-african-church-licence-after-her-gay-marriage/]