14th May, 2018.
The Council of the Protestant Truth Society register their deep disappointment and dismay at the appointment of the Most Rev Bishop Michael Curry, Primate of the Episcopal Church in the USA as preacher for the wedding of His Royal Highness Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on the 19th day of this month.
Whilst wishing Prince Harry and Meghan a long and happy marriage, imbued with the blessings of God, we cannot withhold the deep spiritual concern we have that it should begin at a service which will have a preacher who does not hold to the Biblical view of marriage so beautifully expressed in the Service of the Solemnization of Matrimony in the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England.
With great concern we note that despite being invited to preach at this high-profile wedding he does not believe in Biblical marriage (Genesis 2:24 “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh”). At this of all weddings, taking place in the United Kingdom, involving the 6th in line to the throne, whose monarch (the groom’s grandmother) promised at her coronation that she would: “…to the utmost of [my] power maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel. [And] to the utmost of [my] power maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law.”
The Episcopal Church, Bishop Curry’s denomination, has acted contrary to the Bible and to the “Protestant Reformed Religion” by accepting so called ‘same-sex-marriage’, for which it has been suspended from full participation in the Anglican Communion (the world-wide Church of England). The suspension is specifically because these views on, and actions over, marriage are “a fundamental departure from the faith”.
This abrogation of Biblical truth by the denomination that he oversees, and his personal views on the matter, make him utterly unsuitable as a preacher at this occasion. It is beyond credibility that the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York would not know of the liberal and unbiblical views he holds as it was they who were the prime movers in this suspension of the ECUSA from the Anglican Communion.
We therefore request that his invitation be withdrawn and that a suitable preacher who holds to the Gospel as it is written, and to the “faith once delivered unto the saints”, be appointed forthwith.
Rt Rev Dominic Stockford
Chairman, Protestant Truth Society