It all began in a garden. I’m not thinking of the Garden of Eden. I have in mind a vicarage garden in London NW6 where my friends in Changing Attitude England met last year for a conversation.
I couldn’t be there on that occasion, but I’ve been involved in this conversation for a long time now, with Colin and others. It’s a conversation about God, and how our image of God shapes our outlook on life and our relationships with others.
For at least a decade, those involved in these conversations in Changing Attitude England have come to see that the Church’s difficulties in embracing full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer people, is linked to the rise of an increasingly distorted theology.
Evolutionary thinking
For some of us it seems as if a corporate amnesia has developed regarding the message of God’s unconditional love. The Church’s assimilation of evolutionary thinking, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century too, seems almost completely forgotten, and doctrinal and pastoral development – like history generally, as Professor Helen King often reminds us – is frequently overlooked.
The reason we keep talking, and banging on about these things is because of their serious negative impact on people’s lives and on our church communities. It’s easy enough to talk. We want this conversation to lead to a renewed vision of the divine compassion, and for that vision to inspire action.
A necessary conversation
But to set this process in motion there needs to be a conversation, and the more people involved the better. I missed out on that meeting in the vicarage garden last summer, so I’m determined to be there at our forthcoming conference, on Saturday 2nd March, from 10am to 4pm, at St Andrew’s Church, Short Street, London, SE1 8LJ. I hope that you’ll want to be there too.
It will be an opportunity to listen to, and be drawn into, a stimulating and important conversation; to contribute to it; and by so doing, to shape it.
What we’re hoping for, as organisers, is that things are going to change for the better. And hence the choice of Jesus’ words, from John 10.10, for the conference title, Life in all its fullness.
The Church of England’s vision for schools
Coincidentally, but hardly surprisingly, ‘Life in all its fullness’ was chosen by the Church of England to encapsulate its vision for its schools: https://www.churchofengland.org/about/education-and-schools/vision-education
This schools’ vision has four key components, ‘Educating for wisdom, knowledge and skills’; ‘Educating for hope and aspiration’; ‘Educating for community and living well together’, and ‘Educating for dignity and respect.’
Valuing All God’s Children
This over-arching vision of fullness of life has been fully incorporated in the latest, 2019, edition of Valuing All God’s Children: Guidance for Church of England Schools on challenging homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying. https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2019-07/valuing-all-gods-children-july-2019_0.pdf
It's both ironic and sad that the Church of England has provided such helpful and comprehensive guidance for its schools, but that nothing equivalent exists to prevent harm to its LGBTIQ clergy and laity in its churches. Schools, of course, are subject to the UK Equality Act. Church life is not – yet, at any rate – and the grounds for such exemption seem increasingly thin and untenable.
The vision and ethos set out in Valuing All God’s Children could so easily be transferred to church life. In fact, I’m engaged in just such a task with someone at that moment.
In its own words, the Church of England’s vision for education is ‘deeply Christian’, a depth neatly summarised in what it means by ‘Educating for dignity and respect’, namely, ‘the basic principle of respect for the value and preciousness of each person, treating each person as a unique individual of inherent worth.’
Language matters
A recent letter to the Church Times (2nd February 2024) has criticised the Church of England Education Office for uncritically adopting the language of ‘gender identity’ in Valuing All God’s Children, a term now described as ‘contested’ in the Government’s draft Guidance for Schools and Colleges about ‘Gender Questioning Children, currently out for consultation.
In fact, the Church of England Education Office has been exemplary in its engagement with best theory and practice concerning gender variant children. This is not the place to go into detail, but the latest Government guidance is itself highly contested, seriously under-researched, and, according to many school heads, practically unworkable.
I’ll be taking part in that consultation, but it won’t be a conversation. Like an earlier ‘consultation’ on gender recognition reform, the equalities minister won’t be interested in what gender variant adults, children, or their parents have to say – they will do what they want, or can get away with – even though our lives are the most affected by these policies.
Basic respect for trans people
Basic respect ‘for the value and preciousness’ of trans people seems to be lacking in our society now; demonisation of trans people and the spread of misinformation about our lives by the British media has been intense for over half a decade. The tragic murder of trans schoolgirl Brianna Ghey has shown what we as a nation have become.
But trans people will be participating in the conversation when we meet on the 2nd of March, as we a pursue the ‘deeply Christian’ vision of ‘Life in all its fullness’, by which we mean, at the very least, ‘treating each person as a unique individual of inherent worth.’