“INTEGRITY” has been “trumped by expediency” within the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process, the Bishop of Guildford, the Rt Revd Andrew Watson, has said.
The way by which changes have been introduced has “significantly dented trust within the House of Bishops”, he writes in a newly published pamphlet.
In the document, published on the diocese of Guildford’s website last week, Bishop Watson suggests that the choice not to make use of Canon B2 to introduce services of blessing for same-sex couples, but as a substitute to permit their introduction after easy majority votes within the Houses of the General Synod, has caused several problems.
The most important, he writes, is that “now we have bypassed a serious try and discern the mind of the Church . . . so dramatically raising the theological and emotional stakes.”
Bishop Watson refers to a paper published by the Church’s Faith and Order Commission, which says that there is no such thing as a agreement on the character of the disagreement between those that support changes and people who oppose them. Many, Bishop Watson writes, imagine that the disagreement is about “the role of scripture in shaping our theology, liturgy and each day life”.
Earlier this yr, the Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Revd Martyn Snow, who’s the lead bishop for LLF, published a booklet by which he argued that it was possible to proceed as one Church, even while disagreements continued in regards to the nature of the theological disagreement in addition to its implementation (News, 7 March).
Bishop Watson, who, like Bishop Snow, holds a conservative position on problems with sexuality and marriage, argues that an acknowledgement that, for a lot of, the disagreement is of “first- or second-order significance” is a vital step to moving on.
He also writes that any settlement that the Church attempts to succeed in with opponents of the introduction of blessings for same-sex couples must have “proper legal backing . . . moderately than being either discretionary or temporary”.
Bishop Watson asserts that a Canon B2 process moderately than approval by a straightforward majority vote within the General Synod would supply “theological and legal integrity” for the introduction of stand-alone services of blessing.
Canon B2 requires a two-thirds majority in all three Houses of the Synod, and, on the premise of the Synod’s current make-up, it will not clear this hurdle within the Houses of Clergy or Laity.
An umbrella group of Evangelical and traditionalist groups, referred to as the Alliance, has previously threatened to develop a “de facto ‘parallel Province’” if Canon B2 shouldn’t be used for the introduction of further changes (News, 28 June 2024).
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