Vicar defends blessing of lesbian lovers

Press, 15 July 1987, Page 53

Vicar defends blessing of lesbian lovers

NZPA-AP London A vicar has defended the ceremony he devised to bless a married couple who separated to each take woman lovers. The Rev. David Arnott, a vicar for 18 years, blessed a former nun, Marika Biddle, as she handed over her husband, Nikki, to her best friend and started a lesbian life with a former convent colleague. Marika, aged 41, will live with an unnamed woman, while Nikki, aged 29, and their children, set up home with a widow, Pat Dutton, aged 35, and her three children. The arrangement has shocked the Somerset village of Weston Zoyland where Mr Arnott conducted the midnight ceremony. He read the passage from the Bible detailing how Jacob received a blessing to walk the wilderness after tricking his brother Esau. “In the biblical story the official blessing has already been given and the father in the story cannot and will not reverse that,” he said.

“But he gives a second blessing to walk the wild places of the earth. It is a prayer for people walking in the desert where there are no signposts. “It is for people who cannot claim for themselves comfort and security from what is established in society. “We are talking about a group of people who are on a journey and I am not trying to put a rubber stamp on it. You can only stand by them as they take their own chances.” He said his meeting with the four people and the children at Nikki’s home was not a proper ceremony. “It was a time of praying with a certain group of people as I would do with any friends or any contacts I had. It was not a formal ceremony in any sense.” “I felt I was doing no more than I would do with any personal situation. This is not about sex or marriage breakdown or homosexuality — it is about people who, whatever was happening to them, wanted to commit

their future to God regardless of which way they were going.” His Bishop, the Right Rev. John Bickersteth of Bath and Wells, refused to comment.