Church of England ends Living in Love and Faith process

The Church of England’s House of Bishops has announced it’s bringing the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process to an in depth. 

LLF was launched by the Church of England in 2017 to explore questions of human identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage through study, listening and discernment. Ultimately it wanted to think about whether the Church should bless same-sex relationships and marriages, and permit clergy to be in same-sex unions.

The LLF process led to the creation of Prayers of Love and Faith – public prayers and blessings for same-sex couples as part of standard church services. These were approved by the Church of England’s parliamentary body, the General Synod, in February 2023. 

Following that vote, the bishops had been considering bespoke standalone services of blessing and latest guidance for clergy in relation to same-sex unions but last October the bishops were forced to confess that they weren’t at liberty to introduce such changes without full formal authorisation under canon law.

A final decision had been due in December but was delayed to permit the bishops more time to think about “some areas where further clarification is required” and “to proceed work on a letter to the Church summarising LLF and setting out an agreed position”. That letter has now been released. 

The bishops write, “We consider we have now fulfilled, albeit imperfectly, the February 2023 General Synod motion as best we will given the range of views across the Church of England, including replacing Issues in Human Sexuality after the July 2025 Synod motion, without departing from or indicating any departure from the Church’s doctrine of marriage.

“We consider, as a House, that the time has now come formally to conclude this Synodical process in February 2026 and to discover the subsequent stages of labor which is able to should be considered by the House of Bishops and the General Synod in the approaching years, including the continued structures for development, dialogue and discernment.”

The letter confirms the position taken in October that standalone services of blessing will need full formal authorisation under canon law, while general permission for clergy to be in a same-sex civil marriage would require a proper legislative process, which the bishops have agreed to explore. 

“With a high degree of consensus, the House has concluded that the extra challenges posed by bespoke services would require maximum communal authorisation through the Canon B2,” the letter reads.

It continues, “Some bishops, clergy and lay people consider it could be right to enable further provision, akin to permitting Church of England churches to solemnise the marriages of same sex couples.

“However, we have now not found sufficient consensus to proceed further with these suggestions nowadays, given the range and balance of views across the Church. Our common discernment on these questions will proceed in the approaching years.”

The bishops already announced in October that ‘Delegated Episcopal Ministry’ – the means by which opponents of same-sex blessings could receive oversight from bishops of the identical persuasion – could be placed on hold. The letter published this week again rules out Delegated Episcopal Ministry at this stage but says that the Faith and Order Commission will provide further theological reflection on this area for the House of Bishops to think about at a later date.

“We recognise, nonetheless, that these debates around differentiation and alternative jurisdiction and provision might want to proceed into the long run (alongside the continued debates around the potential of clergy getting into same sex marriage and the solemnisation of same sex marriage),” the bishops said.

“We trust that these debates will proceed in a spirit of honesty, grace and mutual respect, and with sensitivity to those whose lives and relationships are most deeply affected.”

The letter goes on to say that the bishops need to “avoid an additional cycle of hopes or anxieties being raised only to be disenchanted”, while recognising that “there stays work still unresolved from LLF which needs each resources and co-ordination”.

With that in mind, the bishops have commissioned a Working Group to look at theological arguments and legal routes towards approving bespoke services of Prayers of Love and Faith and enabling clergy to enter into same-sex marriage, while also considering any “proportionate” pastoral episcopal provision referring to further proposed changes. 

The bishops intend to report back to the General Synod with recommendations inside the first two years of the brand new General Synod quinquennium. 

The Bishop of Winchester, Philip Mounstephen, said: “I’m aware that the means of LLF has been very fraught and I’m sorry that it has caused each pain and a few anger amongst many.

“I do know too that we usually are not now where many would want us to be – but I feel the place we’re in now’s a spot of commitment to due and proper process: and that actually matters.

“We are – and we should be – a properly ordered Church.”

The Bishop of Blackburn, Philip North, said: “The LLF process has caused immense pain on all sides since the matters it concerns carry us to the center of what it means to be human and what it’s to be Christian.

“After an important deal of praying and reflecting together, the House of Bishops has agreed that we would like to avoid fragmentation and travel together as one Body for the sake of our mission to the nation.

“This implies that after we are making big decisions about what we consider, we want to make use of General Synod’s established processes to discern God’s will.

“For some we have now not gone far enough, for others we have now already gone too far. My prayer is that we will stay together for the sake of the people we’re called to serve.”