CAMPAIGNERS with contrasting views of Living in Love and Faith (LLF) have responded to the General Synod’s decision on the method after last week’s five-hour debate on a motion from the Archbishop of York (News, 13 February).
The LLF process is ending, but the problems will proceed to be discussed by two recent groups: the Relationships, Sexuality and Gender Working Group, and the Relationships, Sexuality and Gender Pastoral Consultative Group
For the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), its national director, the Revd John Dunnett, said on Friday that the Synod’s acceptance on Thursday of last week of “the House of Bishops’ proposal to repaint the LLF bus and keep the journey going” risked “perpetuating the pain of many unless they work out methods to accommodate theological oil and water in a way that provides secure spaces for everyone.
“CEEC’s conviction is that this can’t be done with out a differentiated arrangement. We hope and pray that the House of Bishops will welcome such a discussion so that a way may be found to resolve this ongoing and fractious disagreement,” he said.
An announcement from Together for the Church of England, released on Thursday, said that the House of Bishops had steadily retreated, owing to “threats and intimidation”, from what the Synod had agreed in 2023.
“The Church of England stays in an unjust and indefensible position,” the group said, and “the pain of deferment and dithering” had been “clearly heard within the chamber”.
It continued: “Among people within the pews, and amongst faithful LGBTQIA+ Christians across the country, the necessity for reform is obvious. . . The [new] working group must start its work, and achieve this with none further delay.”
The group announced that it had drafted a personal member’s motion, which, it hoped, can be tabled in July as a primary step towards “a full and serious discussion concerning the doctrine of marriage”. The motion says: “That this Synod affirm that there aren’t any fundamental objections to being in a committed, faithful, intimate same-sex relationship, and that such a relationship may be entirely compatible with Christian discipleship.”
The Revd Robert Thompson, who was unable to attend the Synod in person as he was recovering from surgery, posted on X: “This debate just isn’t about ‘issues’. It just isn’t about ‘sensitivities’. It just isn’t about ‘either side’. It is about whether the Church will proceed to treat queer love as a tolerated irregularity, or recognise it as a site of grace. . .
“For a long time LGBTQIA+ people have carried the spiritual burden of this institution’s hesitation. We have been told to attend. To be patient. To understand process. To appreciate nuance. Meanwhile now we have baptised children, buried the dead, preached the gospel, and prayed the liturgies, knowing that our own covenanted love stays the one thing the Church cannot quite bring itself to bless without qualification. Let that hypocrisy sink in.”
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