The Church Paints Itself into a Corner

Church leaders’ public statements on issues of heterosexuality throughout the 1960s and 1970s reflected an unwavering commitment to Anglican principles of positive sex teaching, education for citizenship, and moral freedom. This was apparent in reports and commentaries produced by the church’s moral welfare organisations, as well as the bishops’ interventions in parliamentary debates about access to contraception and sex education in schools. Yet, while Anglicans were significant supporters and architects of Britain’s development towards a more permissive society, they continued to grapple with difficult decisions about how the church might respond by developing its own sex teaching.