THE Church “stays divided” at the tip of the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process, partly since the Bishops “over-promised” on what they might bring to the table, the Archbishop of York told the General Synod on Tuesday afternoon.
He was one in all five bishops to provide a presentation, alongside the Dean of Bristol, on the conclusion of the years-long process on provisions for same-sex couples in church. Last month, the House of Bishops announced that this process would come to an “imperfect” and “untidy” end (News, 14 January), meaning that they might not propose stand-alone blessings for same-sex couples or measures to remove the ban on clergy entering same-sex civil marriages at this meeting of the Synod.
Archbishop Cottrell, who’s the chair of the LLF programme board, hoped that the presentation would offer clarity on how and why this journey had come to an end. “I do know a lot of us would reasonably not be talking about LLF. I do know a lot of you feel hurt, offended, confused, perhaps bitterly disenchanted about where we’re.
“And one thing everyone knows is that we remain divided over these issues, and I’m deeply sorry for that, but what I do rejoice in is that we proceed to carry on to at least one one other.”
He wished, he said, to look to the longer term and consider “how these conversations will proceed”.
Archbishop Cottrell said that, although the House of Bishops had spent loads of time discussing what proposals they could bring to the Synod, this had not, with hindsight, been enough time.
“When we got here in 2023, despite the fact that we got here with great unanimity, I feel it in a short time became clear that truly we had different understandings of what we were bringing, and maybe weren’t honest with ourselves concerning the indisputable fact that we weren’t united — that has change into clear. It’s been a sober thing to learn, but perhaps it’s higher and more honest for us to say.”
Geoff Crawford/Church TimesThe interim Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Revd Ruth Worsley, speaks concerning the working groups and the advantages of those having been in person
The interim Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Revd Ruth Worsley, spoke concerning the LLF working groups and the advantages of those having been in person, where members “worshipped and ate together”.
Archbishop Cottrell agreed that these groups had “worked well” because they were residential. He stressed the importance of praying together, and said that usually, on the Synod, “my heart all the time sinks a bit in relation to prayers and the chamber sometimes empties.”
The Bishop in Europe, Dr Robert Innes, and the Bishop of Oxford, Dr Steven Croft, then spoke concerning the scrapping of the document Issues in Human Sexuality (News, 15 July 2025), PLF, and the Faith and Order Commission (FAOC).
Archbishop Cottrell said: “These haven’t been easy or straightforward things to make decisions on. There are still many areas where we’ve not reached agreement.”
He continued: “To speak well of each other, even once we disagree, to find out about how painful it’s when Christians find themselves in disagreement over these items, that’s a lesson we want to repeatedly learn.”
After the presentation, there was opportunity for questions.
Busola Sodeinde (London) acknowledged the positives raised within the presentation and asked: “At what point would the bishops provide the pastoral difference when it comes to having a separate space and differentiation in how we live out the expression of this theology?”
Archbishop Cottrell responded: “Pastoral provision is proportionate to the change that’s or isn’t made, and that continues to be the principle. Though, in fact, what’s proportionate is itself contested, but that’s how we’re working.”
Vicky Brett (Peterborough) asked what threshold of evidence would trigger a safeguarding motion, and who could be accountable when a youngster was harmed emotionally, psychologically, or spiritually by church processes.
Archbishop Cottrell said that this was a “deeply serious query to which I don’t want to provide a brief, inadequate answer”.
He continued: “I do know the fact of the situations you’re describing because I’ve had conversations with people for whom that has been their lived reality. I’m sure all of us would wish to do all that we are able to to minister to and stop that occuring, but I feel as if that needs a conversation. I hope you’ll keep bearing witness to that little bit of the story.”
A motion on LLF is as a result of be debated by the Synod on Thursday afternoon.
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