Since the 1990s, the Anglican Communion has struggled with controversy regarding homosexuality in the church. In 1998, the 13th Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops passed a resolution "rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture". However, this is not legally binding. "Like all Lambeth Conference resolutions, it is not legally binding on all provinces of the Communion, including the Church of England, though it commends an essential and persuasive view of the attitude of the Communion." "Anglican national churches in Brazil, South Africa, South India, New Zealand and Canada have taken steps toward approving and celebrating same-sex relationships amid strong resistance among other national churches within the 80 million-member global body. The Episcopal Church in the U.S. has allowed same-sex marriage since 2015, and the Scottish Episcopal Church has allowed same-sex marriage since 2017." In 2017, clergy within the Church of England indicated their inclination towards supporting same-sex marriage by dismissing a bishops' report that explicitly asserted the exclusivity of church weddings to unions between a man and a woman. At General Synod in 2019, the Church of England announced that same-gender couples may remain recognised as married after one spouse experiences a gender transition. In 2023, the Church of England announced that it would authorise "prayers of thanksgiving, dedication and for God's blessing for same-sex couples."
The Anglican Church of Australia, formerly known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania, is a Christian church in Australia and an autonomous church of the Anglican Communion. It is the second largest church in Australia after the Catholic Church. According to the 2016 census, 3.1 million Australians identify as Anglicans. As of 2016, the Anglican Church of Australia had more than 3 million nominal members and 437,880 active baptised members. For much of Australian history since the arrival of the First Fleet in January 1788, the church was the largest religious denomination. It remains today one of the largest providers of social welfare services in Australia.
Peter Alan Broadbent, known as Pete Broadbent, is an English Anglican bishop. He served as the Bishop of Willesden, an area bishop in the Church of England Diocese of London for twenty years, 2001–2021. During the vacancy in the diocesan see from 2017 to 2018, he served as Acting Bishop of London.
Stephen George Platten, is a retired Anglican prelate, the last to serve as diocesan Bishop of Wakefield in the Church of England.
Clerical celibacy is the discipline within the Catholic Church by which only unmarried men are ordained to the episcopate, to the priesthood in the Latin Church, and similarly to the diaconate. In other autonomous particular churches, the discipline applies only to the episcopate. According to Jason Berry of The New York Times, "The requirement of celibacy is not dogma; it is an ecclesiastical law that was adopted in the Middle Ages because Rome was worried that clerics' children would inherit church property and create dynasties."
This article largely discusses presence of openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender and queer bishops in churches governed under episcopal polities. The existence of LGBT bishops in the Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist and other traditions is a matter of historical record, though never, until recently, were LGBT clergy and bishops ordained by any of the main Christian denominations. Homosexual activity was engaged in secretly. When it was made public, official response ranged from suspension of sacramental duties to laicisation.
Sir William Derek Pattinson was secretary-general of the General Synod of the Church of England from 1972 until 1990.
Alan Thomas Lawrence Wilson is a British Anglican bishop. Since October 2003, he has been the area Bishop of Buckingham in the Diocese of Oxford.
The Archdeacon of Hampstead is a senior ecclesiastical officer in the Church of England Diocese of London, named after, and based in and around, the Hampstead area of London. He or she is the priest responsible for the Archdeaconry of Hampstead.
The ordination of lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender (LGBT) clergy who are open about their sexuality or gender identity; are sexually active if lesbian, gay, or bisexual; or are in committed same-sex relationships is a debated practice within some contemporary Christian denominations.
Alan Peter Winton is a retired bishop who served as Bishop of Thetford in the Church of England Diocese of Norwich.
Paul Bayes is an English Anglican retired bishop. He served as Bishop of Liverpool, 2014–2022, and as Bishop of Hertford in the Church of England Diocese of St Albans, 2010–2014.
Nicholas Roderick Holtam is a retired bishop of the Church of England. He served as Bishop of Salisbury from 2011 until his retirement in 2021.
Andrew Peter Nunn is a British retired Anglican priest. Before retirement, he served as Dean of Southwark in the Church of England.
Roderick Charles Howell Thomas is a retired Church of England bishop. He was the Bishop of Maidstone, a provincial episcopal visitor for conservative evangelical members and parishes of the church, from 2015 until his retirement in 2022.
Anne Elizabeth Hollinghurst is a Church of England bishop and former youth worker. Since September 2015, she has been the Bishop of Aston, the suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Birmingham. From 2010 to 2015, she was Vicar of St Peter's Church, St Albans.
Robert James "Rob" Wickham is a British Anglican bishop. He has been CEO of the Church Urban Fund since June 2023, having previously served as Bishop of Edmonton 2015–2023. He also served part-time as Acting Bishop of Portsmouth.
Nicholas Alan "Nick" Chamberlain is a British Anglican bishop. On 19 November 2015, he became the suffragan Bishop of Grantham in the Diocese of Lincoln. He had previously been vicar of the parish of St George and St Hilda, Jesmond, in the Diocese of Newcastle since 2006. Chamberlain was the first bishop in the Church of England to come out as gay on 2 September 2016.
Steven James Betts is a British Church of England priest. Since 2012, he has been the Archdeacon of Norfolk.
Woyin Karowei Dorgu was a Nigerian-born Church of England bishop and medical doctor. He was the Bishop of Woolwich, an area bishop in the Diocese of Southwark from his consecration on 17 March 2017 until his death.
