Equality campaigners including a New Cross priest who was chaplain at Wandsworth Prison have urged the Church of England to embrace same-sex marriage and reject a controversial bishops' report upholding its opposition.

Dozens of LGBT priests and religious activists held up banners outside the General Synod of the Church of England in central London while bishops arrived to debate their findings.

The report, created by 10 bishops, is a product of £350,000 and almost three years of work.

But today Jeremy Pemberton, the first CoE priest to get married to a same-sex partner in Britain, slammed the report as "insultingly inadequate".

The 61-year-old said: "The first priest in the Church of England to marry a same-sex partner was me nearly three years ago.

"I had told the bishops that I was going to do it and they said there might be some difficulty.

"I was working as a hospital chaplain in Lincolnshire and I applied for a senior chaplain's post in Nottinghamshire near where I live and the bishop refused to give me a licence.

"The only reason was because I had got married and as a consequence I lost the job.

"Because of the discrimination I lost employment, I took the bishop to an employment tribunal and I lost and I took him to an appeal and I lost.

"I am now taking him to the Court of Appeal and we will see what happens.

"I currently work as a civil servant conducting non-religious weddings and celebrations, many LGBT couples come to me.

"The report is insultingly inadequate and poor, I would like to see Synod refuse to take note of the bishops' report because it does not provide any significant change.

"This is completely unsatisfactory and out to be rejected roundly."

The protest was organised by the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement and Changing Attitude with the support of the Peter Tatchell Foundation and Out and Proud African LGBTI.

Angus Galbraith, 73, who works as a priest in New Cross, said: "I have been open in all the places I have served.

"My last job was a prison chaplain at Wandsworth Prison where it was essential to be transparent.

"The bishops are not seeing those who love God and want to serve god for some reason.

"They have not consulted us whatsoever.

"Everything is about sex with them, they are obsessed with it.

"I don't know how they chose the ten bishops who produced the report and I do not know the criteria by which they were chosen and that should be known.

"It creates total distrust.

"We want to be known as people not LGBTI, we are people first and feel like we are being treated like piece of meat at the butchers.

"I think the bishops foster a lot of guilt around sex and use it to control people."

Changing Attitude campaigner Colin Coward, 71, a priest from Wiltshire, said: "They are paranoid about sex.

"They are in denial about it, that it is pleasurable and that everybody desires it.

"I do not want the bishops to start again, that would waste another three years.

"All the work has been done, over the last 40 years the bishops have produced a number of great reports and we have to help them find what they have already achieved.

"I have no idea why they cannot come to their senses with it.

"I got really angry with one of the bishops yesterday, he had no comprehension of the impact the report has had.

"There are 3,600 people on our Facebook ground and they are furious."

Veteran equality campaigner Peter Tatchell stood outside the Synod where a line of activists held placards including "Proud to be gay, now make me proud to be Christian".

He said: "We are appealing to Synod to reject the bishops' report because it enshrines discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

"This report reaffirms that the Church of England opposes same-sex single marriages in registry offices as well as in church.

"It also says that the Church of England must not conduct same-sex civil partnerships in the church and it denies the right of same-sex single couples to be blessed in a church when they will bless cats and dogs.

"It gives a very clear message that clergy who are in same-sex marriages which are lawful will be denied promotion and if they are applying for them will be refused.

"That is a massive scale of discrimination, which is against principles of Christian love and compassion.

"Discrimination is not a Christian value."

A total of 25 LGBT clergy are currently married to same-sex partners.

The report reaffirms current CoE doctrine which claims marriage should be between a man and a woman, for life.

The Synod is set to discuss its findings and come to a conclusion later today.