The men in suits gathered at St Helens Bishopsgate, alternative spiritual overseers commissioning (or confirming or ordaining by laying on of hands) seven “young” men for church leadership. Those in suit and tie (and some in dog collar and purple shirt) look so respectable, authoritative, establishment, full of wealth and self-confidence. This exemplar of the historic, orthodox, traditional, Bible-based Church of England, St Helens Bishopsgate, sheltered by the office towers of City wealth and privilege, following the example set a few days earlier by All Souls Langham Place sheltered by the BBC and the wealth of mammon in Oxford Street and Regent Street manifests an intimidating image of a group wielding their own God-given authority.
It’s not the putting into practice their plans, long under development, to inaugurate a schismatic wing of the Church of England, self-determining but not separate, that distresses me (though I think it is a shockingly arrogant, destructive development). It’s their arrogant, myopic conviction that they are right and I am wrong and that they know and are following God’s will and I am not. They are the righteous ones and I am the sinner. They are convicted that same-sex love and marriage is an evil so horrendous and contrary to the fearsome will of the God of Love as specified in the Holy Scriptures – God’s literal and unchallengeable and unchangeable Word. This fearsome dogmatism distresses me – distresses, disturbs and angers.
My life-long desire for the company of and intimacy with other men has become, for the men in suits, something from which God and His Holy Church has to be protected. These men (and a few women) can break the rules they otherwise wish to impose on me to achieve their goals by further enshrining a deeply abusive, homophobic, hostile, prejudiced attitude to LGBTQIA+ people on behalf of their Omni-God who is so traumatised by men who love other men and women who love other women, some of whom wish to sanctify their desires and intimacies by exchanging rings and kissing each other before the altar in the sanctuary of God witnessed and blessed by a priest.
Bad religion
Bad religion – that’s what is being served up today. Now is not the time to be developing a brand of so-called orthodox, traditional Christianity that is based on the denial of a sacrament to a particular group of people because of the love we feel towards the same gender.
The actions of the Church of England Evangelical Council and the Alliance are taken in opposition to the life, teaching and example of Jesus Christ, the pioneer and exemplar of our faith. Any dogma or doctrine that sets out to isolate and violate the dignity and freedom of a group of people because of their innate, God-given identity is un-Christ-like and un-Christian. There have been many such shocking category errors in the history of the Church, including towards women, black people, followers of other religion and members of other Christian denominations.
It is time to halt the contemporary movement that is attempting to institutionalise more deeply conservative Christian prejudice against love, commitment and fidelity between same-sex couples.
I’m writing from the perspective of a gay man, a Church of England priest, who as a lifelong Christian, has for seventy years trusted, within the love of God, that my loves and relationships, desires and sexual activities were and are blessed by the God of love who is not ashamed of who I am.
The CEEC/Alliance and the commissioning events at All Souls and St Helens are:
Promoting and activating schism
Overturning the foundations of the Anglicanism they claim to defend
Pursued by leaders who worship the unhealthy, prejudiced, abusive Omni-God and not True God
Abandoning the orthodoxies and traditions of Christian life and truth modelled in the evolution of Christian theologies and spiritualities
Wedded to majorities and numbers as if they can be used to determine divine truth
Percentages – 50% or 80%
If the CEEC and the Alliance are right and nearly 50% of the Church of England is opposed to equal marriage and the full inclusion of LGBTQIA+ people in every part of church life and 80% of the Anglican Communion are similarly opposed, committed instead to a Church enshrining homophobia and prejudice against us, then the Anglican Communion and the Church of England are indeed in a sick, prejudiced state, hostile to or ignorant of the God of unconditional love and Jesus’ vision of life in all its fullness. If their percentages are true, then the campaign for full LGBTQIA+ equality has a long way to go.
It is an unfair comparison to make, I know, but in the USA, 50% or more of Christians are committed to, and effectively worshipping, Donald Trump BECAUSE he promises to deliver the end of democracy in the USA as if this was the route to the Promised Land and day one of his second term in office when he threatens to act like a dictator. The CEEC and the Alliance are attempting to dictate the future of the Church of England and to me, it would mark the death of the Christian vision that has inspired my life of faith and hope in Jesus the risen and transforming Christ. I sometimes fear I’m a lone voice, but I know I am most certainly not alone – and the percentages quoted by CEEC may need revising. I fear for the future of the USA were Trump to be re-elected and I fear for the future of the Church of England if the College of Bishops and General Synod don’t have the guts to recognise and confront the abuse of LGBTQIA+ people.
The voting of General Synod on LLF measures and the divisions within the House and College of Bishops show that the leadership of the Church of England has a long way to travel before the radical new inclusion of LGBTQIA+ people can be safely guaranteed.
The Diocese of London has issued a statement recognising that some will feel the need for structural provision in the light of what has been passed by General Synod, the London College of Bishops committing itself to ensuring the necessary support is available to all equally in our Diocese. They hope that everyone will work with the process to ensure a future in which all can flourish in the Church of England.
Bishops and leaders in the diocese of London, hope will not achieve a transformation of the Church of England. This is a typical, weak, Anglican stance. Radical new inclusion is the vision presented by the Archbishops – that is your task. But as yet, you haven’t understood what it means, let alone committed yourselves to the task.
A Church House spokesperson said the House of Bishops are seeking to move forward as one Church require grace, realism and a recognition that, as Christians, we hold a variety of views on these questions, all of which are held with integrity and all of which deserve respect.
As founder of Changing Attitude England, I hold a distinctive position. Our vision is the full and equal inclusion of LGBTQIA+ people in a Church of England, overcoming the forces of darkness, prejudice and abuse in the Church of England and the Anglican Communion including the homophobia and transphobia that conservative forces under the banner of Biblical Orthodoxy and Christian fundamentalism wish to enshrine as an integral part of Anglicanism.