As London's The Times reports, a compromise option is proposed: to declare premarital relations a "new road that leads from single state to marriage." In other words, sex is not so sinful if the lovers later go to the altar. However, this approach goes against the centuries-old Christian tradition. Nevertheless, religions have already become accustomed to the fact that traditions increasingly have to be "adjusted" to the changing habits of secular life.
The main problem for the Anglican Church is that European society not only does not condemn, but has long approved of premarital relations. Cohabitation without marriage has become widespread, and legislative practice has even managed to formulate the obligations of a man and a woman who enter into such a "semi-marriage." Moreover, many young Europeans believe that before deciding on such a serious step as entering into an official or church marriage, one must first practice "in conditions close to combat." After living with one's beloved for about six months, you can check in practice whether you can get along with him and solve everyday domestic problems. However, the effectiveness of this test was called into question some time ago: statisticians calculated that couples who lived together before marriage divorce somewhat more often than those who began living together only after the wedding.
An additional complication for the British was that recently premarital cohabitation has come to be considered an acceptable option even among "church youth." Thus, the British publication The Church Times, aimed at religious people, conducted a survey among its subscribers on the topic of premarital relations. The results showed that even in this very conservative environment, about a quarter of respondents take a calm view of this phenomenon - provided that it leads to marriage in the future. And only less than half of those surveyed sharply condemned premarital sex.
The Church is naturally concerned that the discrepancy between Christian precepts and the customs of today's society leads to an outflow of parishioners. Some time ago, the Anglicans even created a special "working group" that was supposed to discuss this problem and, if possible, find some ways to solve it. Christians around the world have a similar experience of liberalization: a hundred years ago it was practically impossible to obtain a church divorce, but now the dissolution of marriage is accepted not only by liberal Anglicans, but also in very conservative Orthodoxy.
So, it is not excluded that after some time the Church of England will legalize premarital relations in one way or another, despite the fact that for this it will have to turn a blind eye to many centuries-old judgments of ancient authoritative theologians.