It is no act of faith to deny Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s daughter from presiding at her godfather, Martin Kenyon’s funeral solely because she is married to a woman.

Matters of church doctrine and discipline are what they are. And the Church of England has a right to do this. But no moral high ground. And no deep well of theological support.

We may decry division (as we love to do), while tolerating a right to exclude, saying something to the effect of:

What can we do?
They have a right to their convictions.
Then we’d support this if the roles were reversed, right?

But that’s it: the roles aren’t reversed and never could be.

There is no reciprocal.

They want to exclude. And the reverse would be our excluding them. But that has never been part of the deal. Ever. They quit.

Our bishops just came back from Lambeth where a group of bishops wanted to change doctrine to create a right to exclude. And when the church reinforced unity in diversity, they once again bailed.

They left. Essentially: If you won’t let us exclude then we refuse to be united.

Which is nothing like the position of a “side” trying to make it work with “the other”. And it is even less like exclusion.

You can’t have a side that doesn’t compromise.

After nearly two decades of these political games, let’s ditch the tired tropes.

None of the placating the uncompromising merits as rational or useful attempts at unity; only pain. The pain they continue to allow. The pain they continue to enforce through doctrine and discipline.

The daughter of one of the greatest men to ever live can’t bury her godfather. Because the Church of England are fools. And their attempt to preserve unity through moral austerity is as bankrupt as the new prime minister’s economic priority.

May God have mercy.