In 2022, the Executive and Trustees of Pilgrims' Friend Society clarified the charity's stance on issues relating to marriage, same sex attraction and gender identity in response to changing views within the UK church. In 2025, we revisited and updated our approach.
Pilgrims’ Friend Society runs care homes and housing schemes, but our charitable objects and purpose is to advance the Christian faith. We do this by making sure that we provide communities, built around our Basis of Faith, which are for Christians seeking to follow Jesus and the Bible.
We recognise that these matters are deeply personal to many people and so we want to be clear that
in our approach to this very sensitive area we seek to show grace and understanding, outwork our values of compassion, community, transparency, and excellence in all that we do, support people who are same sex attracted and who are seeking to live lives in accordance with biblical principles, support people who are trying to live lives in accordance with biblical principles but for whom there is an incongruence between their biological sex and their sense of gender, not be hypocritical by applying one standard to these matters compared to other matters.
We seek to be clear and transparent about Pilgrims’ Friend Society’s stance on these issues so that all those who are connected to us and our work are clear on the organisation's position.
These Clarifications are rooted in our Basis of Faith, and in particular the first point which states that we believe that the teachings of the Bibile are our sole and final authority.