PRESSURE is building on the Church of England’s bishops before a formal vote next week on the next steps in the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process.
In October, the House of Bishops announced that approval for stand-alone services of blessing for same-sex couples, and the reconsideration of rules that bar the clergy from entering into same-sex marriage, would be subject to further synodical processes (News, 17 October).
But these decisions are still subject to a formal vote at a meeting on 16 December. The campaigners have not given up hope that a change of course will be agreed.
More than 7000 people have signed an open letter, co-ordinated by Inclusive Church, imploring the Bishops to “offer leadership and direction that honours the inclusive majority of the Church of England and truly values LGBTQ+ people”.
In addition, several hundred young people have added their names to a letter published by the Student Christian Movement (SCM).
In the diocese of Southwark, 160 priests have written to the Bishop, the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, asking him unilaterally to permit stand-alone services, and to make a commitment to sponsoring ordinands who are in same-sex civil marriages.
One of the signatories to the SCM letter, Ruth, said that the decision announced by the Bishops in November was “not a disappointment: it’s a complete and utter betrayal”.
A medical student in her early twenties, she said that young LGBTQ+ Anglicans felt excluded from decision-making, and urged the Bishops not to be “scared”.
“I was brought up to believe that my queerness could destroy the Church. I get it — it’s terrifying. But it’s not true,” she said.
“We need bishops who lead,” another SCM signatory, Thomas, said. The rules that prohibited the ordination of someone in a same-sex marriage had been a major factor in the breakdown of his relationship of nine years, he said: his relationship was incompatible with his vocation.
Another ordinand, James, suggested that the current rules felt arbitrary. He is bisexual, but is able to proceed in the ordination process because he married a woman.
The signatories to the Inclusive Church letter were drawn from more than 3000 churches, including some in the HTB and New Wine network. The chair of the group, the Archdeacon of Bromley and Bexley, the Ven. Allie Kerr, said: “The scale and depth of support for this open letter speaks to a Church longing for clarity, compassion, and genuine inclusion.”
The signatories make clear that they will not withdraw parish share or other financial contributions “in protest”. Some opponents of blessings for same-sex couples have redirected parish-share payments to the Church of England Evangelical Council’s Ephesian Fund.
Bishops were too concerned about the threatened departure of churches “with money”, Ruth said. “Young queer people have already left, but they don’t really care about that; we don’t matter.”
Thomas, vowing to stay in the Church, described himself as a “hopeful pessimist” when it came to greater inclusion, but loved the institution of the C of E despite, at times, also hating it.
The SCM letter, signed by 305 under-30s, took the Bishops to task for the wording, as well as the content, of their October announcement, which had “not even troubled to restate” that God loved all LGBTQ+ people.
“We have all been waiting with as much grace as we could manage, whether we are straight allies or LGBTQ+ identifying ourselves. You have let us down,” the letter says.
The Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, said last week that she “laments” the House of Bishops’ decision. She was speaking in the Newcastle diocesan synod, where she supported a motion calling on the Bishops to permit stand-alone services of blessing and allow clergy to enter into same-sex civil marriages.
Such steps, Dr Hartley said, were “simply asking the House of Bishops to progress LLF decisions already made”, and reconfirmed her desire to see “full inclusion for LGBTQI+ people”.
Acknowledging that it was her responsibility “to offer support, care, and oversight of people who hold differing views”, Dr Hartley said that she needed to “place on the record how I will seek to lead and represent this diocese in discussions and debates in the coming weeks and months”.
Previously, the Bishops of Chelmsford and Lincoln also used their presidential addresses to their diocesan synods to express disappointment with the announcement made in October. Both noted that the formal decision was yet to come (News, 28 November).
The Newcastle motion was carried on a show of hands; last month, a similar motion was carried by Lincoln diocesan synod. The proposer of the Newcastle motion was the Revd Gill Alexander, who chairs the diocesan board of education.
She had not, she told the Church Times, spoken out on LLF previously, but had become “seriously concerned about the harm that the Church of England is causing to children and young people in its handling of this issue”.
Ruth said that, as a young teenager, she had been convinced that her sexuality meant that she was “not loved by God, and hurting God”. She had spent years “punishing herself” before she attended a church that affirmed her identity, she said.
