We recognise that all relationships and commitments, irrespective of sexuality, are deeply significant and relational. We encourage individuals to seek God’s wisdom, shaped by Scripture, community, and the call to faithful, covenantal love.

​The church upholds biblical principles of love, faithfulness and covenantal integrity. We understand covenantal integrity to involve an explicit, intentional commitment made before God and witnessed by others, rather than a purely private declaration between two people.

At St John’s, we celebrate and support marriage as a meaningful and important way of living out this kind of commitment, offering clarity, stability, and accountability for couples, families, and the wider community. Marriage is a recognised and established expression of this covenant. We also acknowledge that some couples seek to embody these same covenantal commitments outside of legal marriage. In such cases, we do not reduce the relationship to legal status alone, but look for the presence of these covenantal characteristics in practice, such as a clear public commitment, faithfulness, mutual responsibility, and accountability within a community.

Our role is to offer pastoral care and discipleship, walking alongside individuals and couples as they navigate their commitments before God and build relationships that are healthy, faithful, and rooted in God’s love.

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*A note on singleness: it belongs here too, not as an afterthought but as an equal. We want to resist any assumption that marriage is the destination and singleness the detour. Christian tradition has always held that singleness is not a lesser path but a distinct and honoured calling. Any vision of human flourishing that centres marriage as the goal quietly diminishes singleness, and we don't want to do that