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Several gay Church of England clergy are set to reveal that they have married their partners, defying the official stance taken by church leaders on same-sex marriage.

They are to sign an open letter to say they are already in same-sex marriage and want official position reconsidered.

The letter will be sent to the House of Bishops in September when all of the signatories will be revealed.

Rev Andrew Foreshew-Cain, one of the first priests to defy the Church’s rules and marry his gay partner, told The Times: “We are now going to keep pushing for the next and the next and the next [step] until we get full equality in the church.

“We are not going away.”

But Andrea Williams, the chief executive of pressure group Christian Concern, added that she believed the letter was an attempt to “undermine the authority of the teaching of the church”.

Nottingham Canon Jeremy Pemberton sued for unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal after the Church of England withdrew his right to officiate as a priest after he got married in April 2014 – costing him his job at Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS trust.

Since same-sex marriages were legalised in England and Wales in March 2014 church leaders, headed by the archbishops of Canterbury and York, Justin Welby and John Sentamu respectively, decided that clergy must not enter into a same-sex marriage and that those in a gay marriage would not be ordained.

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