The bishop was speaking at the employment tribunal of Canon Jeremy Pemberton, who married his same-sex partner in a civil ceremony last year in defiance of guidance by Church of England bishops.
The bishop of Buckingham, appearing for Pemberton, was asked by Thomas Linden QC, for the respondent Inwood, if he thought clergy “should accept the teachings of the church”.
He replied: “Yes.”
Asked about the church’s teaching on “holy matrimony”, he said: “It’s not that I don’t think it’s true, or the canons of England should not be followed, all I say is it’s a lousy definition, if it cannot tell you who is and who is not married.”
The bishop, who is also an historian, said the reason that part of canon teaching was first included back in 1938 had little to do with the partnership being between a man and a woman.
He said the inclusion of marriage being between “one man and one woman” was “entirely coincidental because of the time it was framed”.
The bishop went on: “They weren’t making a doctrinal point but a statement about the position of marriage as it existed in that time, in 1938.”
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