CANTERBURY, England (RNS) — The Very Rev. David Monteith has a very public role. As dean of the Canterbury Cathedral, the mother church of the Church of England and the larger Anglican Communion, he oversees England’s oldest and grandest cathedral.
Yet despite his important caretaking role for the Church of England’s most iconic institution, Monteith feels in many ways like an alien.
As a gay man, he functions within a church that does not allow people like him to marry. Nor will it allow a stand-alone church service of blessings celebrating same-sex relationships, only a blessing within a regularly scheduled service.
Monteith, who is 57, has been living with his partner, David Hamilton, a retired nurse specializing in palliative care, since Monteith was 21 years old. The couple registered their civil partnership in 2008 after it became possible to do so. Since then, same-sex marriage has become legal across the U.K., but not in the Church of England.
“The mutual support that we have for one another has been crucial in all of my ministry, wherever I’ve been,” said Monteith of his lifelong partner. “I can’t really imagine having done the things I’ve done without that kind of domestic support a …