RSB4Marriage and the Family: Family, Parish Support and Gender Equality

A family is a group of people related by blood, marriage or adoption. Christians see the family as created by God and as the basic building block of society and of the Church.

• Procreation: having children. After creating humans, God told them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth’ (Genesis 1:28, World English Bible, British Edition). Many Christians see children as a gift from God.
• Security: a family gives children love, safety, food and a home, and supports adults too, for example in illness and old age. Paul wrote that anyone who does not provide for their own household ‘has denied the faith’ (1 Timothy 5:8).
• Education: parents teach children right from wrong, and how to live with other people.
• Education in the faith: Christian parents pray with their children, take them to church, read Bible stories and celebrate festivals. At an infant baptism they promise to bring the child up as a Christian.
• Ephesians 6:1-4: ‘Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.’ The passage quotes the commandment to honour father and mother (Exodus 20:12), then tells fathers, ‘don’t provoke your children to wrath, but nurture them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord’ (World English Bible, British Edition).
• So duties run both ways: children respect and obey; parents care, teach and don’t treat children harshly. Many Christians also see caring for elderly parents as part of honouring them.

Three purposes of the family in Christian teaching

Family

A group of people related by blood, marriage or adoption.

Procreation

Having children.

Security

The safety, love and support a family gives its members.

Families in Britain take many shapes. Pearson names five that you should be able to describe.

• The law: same-sex couples have been able to adopt children jointly in England and Wales since 2005.
• Many families move between types over time: a nuclear family may become single-parent after a divorce, then blended after a remarriage.

Five types of family named in the specification

Nuclear family

Two parents and their children living together.

Single-parent family

One parent bringing up children on their own.

Extended family

A family that includes relatives such as grandparents, aunts and uncles.

Blended family

A step-family: a couple with children from one or both partners’ earlier relationships.

Same-sex parents

Two men or two women bringing up children together.

• Shared ground: almost all Christians believe every child is made in God’s image and loved by God, and that churches should welcome and support every family. Jesus welcomed people others rejected.
• The ideal of marriage: Catholic teaching, and many Evangelical and Orthodox Christians, hold that God designed the family around the lifelong marriage of a man and a woman, open to children (Genesis 1:27-28; Mark 10). They see this as the best setting for children, while still caring for families that differ from it.
• Single-parent families: churches stress practical and pastoral support rather than judgement. The Bible repeatedly commands care for widows and orphans, who were the single-parent households of its time (for example James 1:27).
• Blended families: churches that accept remarriage after divorce (most Protestant Churches, and the Church of England at the minister’s discretion) welcome step-families and may bless the new marriage. The Catholic Church does not recognise a second marriage while a first spouse is alive unless the first was annulled, but Pope Francis’s letter Amoris Laetitia (2016) asked parishes to accompany such families with care.
• Same-sex parents: the Catholic Church and many Evangelicals believe a child should have a mother and a father. Many liberal Protestants, for example many Methodists, Quakers and members of the United Reformed Church, believe what children need most is love and stability, which same-sex parents can give, and see adoption as giving a home to a child who needs one.
• Extended families: widely valued. The Bible shows families caring across generations, for example Ruth caring for her mother-in-law Naomi (Ruth 1).

Amoris Laetitia

Pope Francis’s 2016 letter on love in the family, which asked the Church to support families in difficult situations.

A parish is the local area served by a church, and the community of Christians who worship there. Many churches see supporting families as part of their mission.

• Family worship: all-age services and family Masses, where children take part (reading, bringing up the gifts, acting out a story). Jesus said, ‘Allow the little children, and don’t forbid them to come to me’ (Matthew 19:14, World English Bible, British Edition).
• Rites of passage: services that mark stages of family life: baptism or dedication of babies, first Holy Communion, confirmation, weddings and funerals. The whole congregation often promises to support the family.
• Classes for parents: baptism preparation, marriage preparation courses and parenting courses, often run by trained volunteers.
• Counselling: help for couples and families going through difficulty, bereavement or divorce, from clergy or Christian counselling services.
• Groups for children and young people: Sunday schools, toddler groups, holiday clubs, youth groups and uniformed groups that meet in church halls.

Five ways a local parish supports families

Parish

The local area served by a church, and the Christians who worship there.

Rite of passage

A ceremony marking a new stage of life, such as baptism, confirmation, marriage or a funeral.

Sunday school

Classes held by a church, usually during the Sunday service, to teach children about the faith.

• Passing on the faith: children who belong to a church community learn the faith alongside their parents, so it continues into the next generation.
• Keeping promises: at a baptism the congregation promises to help the child grow in faith, so supporting the family keeps that promise.
• Strong families make strong communities: helping parents and couples through hard times can prevent breakdown and protects children.
• Following Jesus: Jesus welcomed and blessed children (Matthew 19:13-15), and taught love of neighbour, so practical care is part of Christian life.
• The Church as a family: Christians call each other brothers and sisters and see the Church as God’s family, where single people, older people and families without relatives nearby can belong.
• Examples: the Mothers’ Union, an Anglican charity founded in 1876, supports family life in Britain and worldwide; many parishes run courses such as The Marriage Course, which began at Holy Trinity Brompton in London.

• Genesis 1:27: ‘God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them’ (World English Bible, British Edition). Many Christians read this as showing men and women have equal worth.
• Genesis 2:18: God says it is not good for the man to be alone and makes ‘a helper comparable to him’. Some read ‘helper’ as a supporting role; others point out that the same Hebrew word is used of God helping people, so it suggests partnership, not lower status.
• Genesis 3:16: after the Fall, God tells the woman that her husband ‘will rule over you’. Many Christians see this as a result of sin, not God’s original plan, which Christians should try to overcome.
• Ephesians 5:21-25: Paul tells Christians to be ‘subjecting yourselves to one another’, then tells wives to be subject to their husbands, and husbands to love their wives ‘even as Christ also loved the assembly and gave himself up for her’ (World English Bible, British Edition).
• Some Christians read Ephesians 5 as a pattern for today: the husband leads by serving, the wife responds. Others read it as written for its own culture, and stress verse 21: mutual submission.

• Both views say men and women have equal dignity before God. They disagree about whether that means the same roles.
• Catholic teaching says men and women are equal and should both be free to work, while valuing a mother’s role at home; it does not teach that women must stay at home.
• Most Christian families in Britain today share paid work, housework and childcare in many ways.

Two broad Christian views of roles in the family

Complementarian

The view that men and women are equal in worth but have different roles that complete each other.

Egalitarian

The view that men and women are equal in worth and may share any role.

Gender prejudice is an unfair attitude or opinion about someone because of their sex or gender. Gender discrimination is acting on that prejudice, treating someone unfairly because of their sex or gender.

• The law: in Britain the Equality Act 2010 makes sex a protected characteristic, so sex discrimination in work, education and services is illegal. Religious organisations have some exemptions, for example over who may be ordained.
• Galatians 3:28: ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus’ (World English Bible, British Edition). This is Paul writing, not Jesus.
• Genesis 1:27: both sexes are made in God’s image, so both have equal value.
• Jesus’ example: he taught women as disciples (Mary sat at his feet, Luke 10:38-42), spoke with a Samaritan woman when that was frowned on (John 4), and women were the first witnesses of the empty tomb (Luke 24).
• How Christians oppose discrimination: campaigning against people trafficking and violence against women; supporting girls’ education; Christian Aid’s work for gender justice with women in poor communities; churches opening ministry to women; speaking out against unequal pay.
• Some Christians admit that churches have sometimes treated women unfairly in the past, and see equality as part of following Jesus today.

Prejudice

An unfair opinion about someone formed without good reason, for example because of their sex.

Discrimination

Acting on prejudice: treating someone unfairly because of who they are.

Gender equality

The idea that people of every gender should have the same rights and opportunities.

• Church of England: women priests since 1994 and women bishops since 2015 (the first was Libby Lane). Sarah Mullally became the first woman Archbishop of Canterbury in 2026. Some parishes that disagree can ask for the ministry of a male bishop.
• Methodist, Baptist and United Reformed Churches, the Church of Scotland and the Salvation Army all have women ministers or officers. The Salvation Army has had women preachers and officers since its founders, William and Catherine Booth.
• Catholic and Orthodox Churches ordain only men as priests and bishops. Reasons they give: Jesus chose twelve men as apostles; the priest represents Christ at the Eucharist; the Church has always done this. They stress that women serve in many other ways, for example as religious sisters, teachers, catechists and parish leaders, and that Mary is honoured above all the saints.
• Some Evangelical churches believe only men should be senior leaders, pointing to Paul’s instructions in 1 Timothy 2:12, while many others have women pastors.
• Reasons for women leaders: Galatians 3:28; women led in the early Church (Phoebe, whom Paul calls ‘a servant of the assembly’, Romans 16:1, World English Bible, British Edition, using the Greek word that also means deacon; Priscilla, who taught Apollos, Acts 18:26); Mary Magdalene was sent to tell the apostles of the resurrection; gifts come from the Spirit, not from being male.
• Last checked: 6 November 2026.

Who may be ordained, by denomination (November 2026)

Ordination

The service in which a person is made a deacon, priest or bishop (also called holy orders).

Apostle

One of the twelve men Jesus chose to be his closest followers and send out to preach.