By | May 31, 2018
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The Private Secretary to Her Royal Highness Princess Henry of Wales
Clarence House
London SW1A 1BA

25 May 2018

Dear Sir,

Please will you lay my letter before Her Royal Highness Princess Henry of Wales. It regards a matter of some interest to Her Highness, specifically a moment when she took a stand for gender equity, and a situation where she can advance it again.

Yours truly,


The Most Revd Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury
Lambeth Palace
London SE1 7JU

Dear Archbishop,

I am a husband, father, and Episcopalian.

During the most recent Royal Wedding, we learned that the American company Proctor and Gamble once advertised dish soap that promised great benefits to the women who used it. An 11 year old Meghan Markle wrote a letter to the company suggesting that they change the commercial to explain the benefits their product brings to all people, not just women. They did.

It occured to me while watching the wedding ceremony – during the part where you were talking about marriage uniting a husband and wife – that you are underselling marriage, and perhaps nobody has written you a letter about it.

As you well know, God made marriage for two people together, for faithfulness, stability, and loving relationships. These are qualities of our hearts, minds, soul and strength – not our bodies. The sacrament brings this to all people.

I wish you would stop referring to marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman and finally fix the Book of Common Prayer, to clarify that the sacrament of marriage is a union between two people.

When such a large part of the Anglican Communion celebrates same-sex marriages, when such marriages are embraced by so many countries within and beyond the Commonwealth, and when my kids know me and my husband as two people who are married, it seems disingenuous and trite to rattle on about the differences of gender instead of the Love of God.

Yours in Christ,

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