TWO Church of England pressure groups wrote to the House of Bishops before its meeting this week to precise hopes and expectations in regards to the next steps within the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process.
The groups—Together for the Church of England, which campaigns for wider provision for LGBTQ people within the Church, and the Alliance, which represents opponents of the proposed blessings of same-sex couples—wrote the letters on the invitation of the House of Bishops, before there meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
The letter from Together’s chairs, Canon Neil Patterson and Professor Helen King, highlights that the Prayers of Love and Faith (PLF) for same-sex couples are getting used. It describes this as a “small step towards redeeming the a long time of exclusion and hurt felt by LGBTQ+ people from the Church of England”, and welcomes a choice the General Synod’s decision in July to proceed with stand-alone services of blessing (News, 12 July).
The “key unresolved query” is the content of promised pastoral guidance for clergy, specifically about whether or not they are permitted to enter same-sex civil marriages, Canon Patterson and Professor King write.
The House of Bishops’ commendation of the PLF demonstrates a belief that “same-sex relationships are good and will be prayed for in public,” they write. “How then can they be impermissible for the clergy?”
The Alliance’s letter is signed by its seven directors. “We gratefully welcome this chance to speak the size of pain and confusion felt by those we represent,” they write, and reiterate calls for “legal provisions” for opponents of the PLF.
There are 2360 clergy supporters of the Alliance, they write, who “represent probably the most diverse, youngest and fastest growing networks inside the Church of
England”.
They complain, nevertheless, that they’re “repeatedly told we’re a small extreme minority grouping despite offering independent validation of our data”, and that, despite assertions that the House of Bishops is “committed to us having a
full and flourishing place” within the Church of England, “the experience on the bottom
feels very different.”
They deny that the Alliance is schismatic and “on the lookout for the widest possible separation within the Church of England”. Instead, they’ve been searching for to enable clergy to remain within the C of E who “might otherwise feel they’re being forced to depart”.
The Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) has introduced several measures that it has described as a “de facto parallel province”, including the commissioning of “overseers” who would perform among the pastoral functions of a bishop, and another fund into which parish share will be paid.
The CEEC’s national director, Canon John Dunnett, is one in all the administrators of the Alliance, and is listed as a signatory to the letter, together with Ade Adebajo, the Revd Adam Gaunt, Canon Vaughan Robert, the Revd Sarah Jackson, Canon Paul Langham, and the Revd Jago Wynne.
Canon Patterson and Professor King conclude their letter with a sign that they’re “willing to work with fastidiously defined conscience provision which is clearly designed to further the unity, slightly than deepen the divisions, within the Church of England.”
After the meeting a Church House spokesperson said: “In accordance with the General Synod motion GS 2358 passed in July, the Bishops considered what guidance could possibly be given to the working groups developing the detail of proposals on specific areas of labor, including the proposed Bishops Statement and Code of Practise. Feedback from the discussions might be shared with the working groups.”
