A Church of England minister has come under fire for holding an “LGBT+ Service” to mark the city’s homosexual pride celebrations. Revd. Canon Dr. Neal Barnes, vicar of Hull Minster, held an evening service on July 21 to coincide with Pride in Hull and the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offenses Act 1967. The event included an address by Canon Rachel Mann, a transsexual activist who lives as a woman. Mann was born male but describes himself as a lesbian.
After the service was announced, the Rev. Melvin Tinker, vicar of St John Newland, Hull, warned it would send the message that God “approves of homosexual, lesbian and trans relationships as much as heterosexual ones.” Tinker lamented the fact that Hull, which was known historically as the “garden of the Lord” because of the predominance of evangelicals, has come to a place where its cathedral celebrates what is morally wrong. CONTINUE
