The newly appointed Archbishop of Wales, the Most Rev Cherry Vann, has said that gay marriage in church is inevitable, as she opened up about decades of concealing her sexuality while serving in the Anglican Church.

Vann, 66, who made history as the first female archbishop in the United Kingdom and the first openly gay bishop to serve as a primate in the global Anglican Communion, reflected on the personal and professional challenges she faced before coming out publicly.

In an interview published by The Guardian UK on Sunday, Vann said, ?Gay marriage in church is inevitable, I think: the question is when. There are people who are very opposed, and as leader, I have to honour their position, which is theologically grounded. It isn?t my job to push something through that would alienate a good proportion of clergy.?

Although she does not personally feel the need to be married in church, Vann, who has been in a civil partnership with Wendy Diamond for over 30 years, noted that societal and institutional change is unavoidable.

?I don?t personally feel the need to get married in church; Wendy and I have been together for 30 years, we?ve made our vows, and we are committed to each other,? she said.

Vann?s rise through the ranks of the church was marked by secrecy and fear, particularly during her early years in the Church of England, where same-sex relationships were tolerated under the condition of celibacy.

?For years we kept our relationship secret because I worried about waking up and finding myself outed on the front page of a newspaper. Now, Wendy joins me everywhere, and when I take services, it?s just normal. But in England she had to stay upstairs if I had a meeting in the house.

?Other people in England were braver than I was and made their sexuality clear. A lot of them suffered the consequences of that, certainly when going forward for ordination,? Vann said.

Reflecting on her journey, she said, ?Without the strong belief that God had called me to the priesthood, I would not have survived. It happens that I?ve lived in a time that?s meant that I?m a trailblazer, but I?m not a campaigner. I?m not somebody to be out there all the time but I do seek to be true to what I think God?s asking of me.?

Vann noted that navigating church leadership as a woman came with its own set of obstacles, saying ?You can hide your sexuality, up to a point, but you can?t hide being a woman. There was a lot of nastiness; the men were angry, they felt they had been betrayed.?

She recalled difficult encounters in the 1990s, when she and a few other women met regularly with male clergy who opposed female ordination. ?It was awful, it was really difficult for all of us, but we stuck at it,? she said.

Now, as Archbishop, Vann expressed belief in fostering reconciliation even amid sharp disagreements. ?This is what I?m hoping around the sexuality Issue too, modelling that we can vehemently disagree about something, but we can still love one another in Christ and recognise one another as children of God,? she said. (Nigerian Tribune)

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