Church of England Warns Conversion Practices Ban Must Not ‘Unintentionally Criminalize’ Prayer

The Church of England says it’s important to ensure the UK government’s draft conversion practices ban for England and Wales “does not unintentionally criminalise providing appropriate prayer and pastoral care to those who seek it,” a Church spokesman told The Telegraph, GB News reported. “We believe that everyone is made in the image of God and should be cherished for who they are,” the spokesman said.

The Church plans to press that point with the joint committee of MPs and peers reviewing the bill, and the spokesman said “we will reflect this concern in our evidence to the pre-legislative scrutiny process.”

“Of course pastoral care and prayer should never be coercive,” the Church’s spokesman said. “A ban on conversion therapy must still allow space for discussion and disagreement.”

A government spokesman defended the draft. “Our draft bill would outlaw a specific form of abuse, setting high bars which protect freedom of expression, including for religious leaders, while ensuring no one is free to commit abuse,” the spokesman said, according to GB News. Church of England’s 2017 Synod Vote for a Conversion Therapy Ban

“In 2017, the General Synod voted overwhelmingly to call on the Government to bring forward a ban on conversion therapy with respect to sexual orientation, which has since been echoed by senior leaders,” the Church spokesman said.

Bishops backed the amended motion 36 to 1, clergy 135 to 25 and laity 127 to 48, according to the Church’s account of the vote. It asked the government to “ban the practice of Conversion Therapy.” Campaigner Jayne Ozanne moved it, and Paul Bayes, then Bishop of Liverpool, said that “LGBTI+ orientation and identity is not a sickness,” the Church reported.

The motion also asked the Church to “be sensitive to, and to listen to, contemporary expressions of gender identity.” This year’s draft explicitly covers attempts to change someone’s sexual orientation or “a transgender identity,” the bill text says.

The Bishop of Manchester, David Walker, spoke for the Church when the government published the draft on June 25. “I welcome the publication of this draft Bill as a positive step towards banning conversion practices,” he said in the government’s announcement. “These have harmed LGBT+ people over many years, leaving many with lifelong trauma,” Walker said, the Church Times reported. Catholic Archbishop John Sherrington Urges Politicians to Abandon the Bill

John Sherrington, the Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool, went further. “There is a danger that this legislation will create uncertainty around lawful pastoral care by the Church, family life and the legality of open conversations that might take place in a range of social settings,” he said, GB News reported.

“People of faith must remain free to express their beliefs through speech and prayer,” Sherrington said. “We call on politicians to abandon this bill and focus instead on enforcement of existing protections and accessible support for anyone facing abuse or coercion.”

The Church of England’s Bishop of Leicester raised drafting concerns in the House of Lords on July 1, pointing to “the lack of clarity on the difference between harmful conversion practices and perfectly acceptable practices of pastoral care and indeed prayer,” according to a record of the exchange on the Church in Parliament blog. Lord Collins of Highbury replied for the government. “A religious leader teaching their faith’s views on LGBT+ matters should not be affected by this draft Bill,” he said.

The bill’s explanatory notes say it is “also not intended to interfere with people’s right to religious belief and expression.” Anyone found guilty of conducting abusive conversion practices “could face an unlimited fine, a custodial sentence of up to 5 years, or both,” the government said in June.

“This Government is clear that freedom of belief, whether faith-based or wider, will be respected by the ban, while our draft bill has already been welcomed by religious groups,” the government spokesman said. Jayne Ozanne Tells Bill Committee the Difference Is ‘Worlds Apart’

Ozanne, founder of the Ban Conversion Practices Coalition, told the bill committee she was traumatized by people praying for her to be straight, GB News reported. “It is the fact that they are trying to pray for you to be changed to a thing that they think you ought to be as opposed to praying for you to find a point of peace,” she said.

“You might say that that is too subtle a difference, but they are worlds apart,” Ozanne said. “Helping me come to a place where I know who I ought to be is very different from telling me that I have to be straight.”

GB News also quoted Jasmine O’Connor, co-CEO of the LGBT+ anti-abuse charity Galop. “We know all too well how gaps in legislation have left LGBT+ people unprotected against covert and insidious forms of abuse, and we welcome this long-overdue legislation,” O’Connor said.

Campaign groups, which GB News didn’t name, argued it was “more important than ever” for Labour to make clear that LGBT+ people do not need “fixing,” the outlet reported. Ian Smith, a survivor of conversion practices, has also described his experience to the committee. Joint Committee’s Nov. 16 Deadline and Jan. 22, 2027, Report

The committee’s call for evidence “closes at 5pm on Monday 16 November,” Christian Today reported. That’s 9 a.m. PT. The committee will “report its findings with recommendations for the government by 22 January 2027,” Galop said in October, and a final bill would then have to be introduced and pass both houses of Parliament.

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