General Synod

Changing Attitude – campaigning against the hostile, abusive, prejudiced and homophobic god of the CEEC

Changing Attitude – campaigning against the hostile, abusive, prejudiced and homophobic god of the CEEC

I haven’t lost my faith, but my trust in the experience of divine presence and love had been dramatically undermined by the relentless determination of conservative Christians to argue for belief in a God who, to me, is hostile, abusive, prejudiced and homophobic.

The desolation of the Church of England

The desolation of the Church of England

In the period of my lifetime, I have witnessed a movement in church and society from reliance on interior to exterior authority. This movement has happened because of changes that have taken place that have increased human anxiety and insecurity at the same time as we have become more scientific, more aware, more person-centred, more able, potentially, to diagnose and heal physical and emotional disturbances to our bodies and psyches. Externalised authority and awareness has become dominant in the Christian Church today over and against our internal intuition and wisdom.

Which God?

Which God?

There is something very unpleasant going on in the Church of England and the Anglican Communion since 1998 that leaves me feeling increasingly conflicted and abused emotionally and spiritually – assaulted by dogma and doctrine and a cruel, ruthless God. This is where the rich, creative, inspiring Christian heritage of my first five decades has brought me; deep disagreement about my sexuality, my priesthood, my membership of the Church of England, my theology and my spiritual vision. It has become more and more difficult to live with this - and it gets worse.

The God I Never Believed In

The God I Never Believed In

I have never believed in the God believed in by the Church of England Evangelical Council, the HTB hierarchy and the Anglican Global South majority – never. After seventy years in which time our ideas about God have continued to evolve, the regressive, authoritarian, dogmatic, supposedly orthodox, traditional theology and teaching still dominates the conservative evangelical mindset of the Church of England Evangelical Council and the Global South majority of the Anglican Communion.

Living in Love and Faith and Together for the Church of England

Living in Love and Faith and Together for the Church of England

The conversations I have had over the past weeks suggest the Church of England is in a state of crisis, a far less healthy state than General Synod and the House of Bishops and other progressive groups recognise. Radical transformation of Christian life and vision is required.

Living in Love and Faith - a Church in crisis

Living in Love and Faith - a Church in crisis

General Synod LLF debate curtailed. We are trapped by the Conservatives and the failure of the House of Bishops to stand up to them and pursue a radical new Christian inclusion with courage. The pursuit is futile when it seeks to resolve differences in the Church between a powerful, male, demanding, abusive, rule-based, sin-hating, dogmatic, punitive Omni-God (for such is the god adhered to by CEEC) and a God of unconditional, infinite, intimate love, the God of Jesus, Mark, Matthew, Luke, John and Paul. The two Gods are not compatible. Trying to achieve agreement between the 20% believing in the Omni-God and the 80% believing in the God of Jesus is impossible.

Freeing the Church of England from Mental Slavery

Freeing the Church of England from Mental Slavery

The Church of England is having the greatest difficulty catching up with attitudes to the role of women and the place of LGBTQIA+ and black and brown people in Christianity, and to attitudes to belief in God, to a transformation from belief in God as a person or being, an entity, to an equally ancient spiritual tradition of God as Mystery, as the essence of life and energy, of primary human values and experience that lay the foundations of love, truth, goodness, health, wisdom and justice.

Time to challenge toxic theology and poisoned prejudice in the Church

Time to challenge toxic theology and poisoned prejudice in the Church

We need to get this toxic theology out of the Church
The theology and behaviour of the Anglican Church is intolerable
Clinging to faith is increasingly problematic
The Church is making the faith less and less attractive with a theology that messes people up
Bad theology is in the bloodstream of the Church
Passionless sex is very problematic

This week’s events bring me close to despair

This week’s events bring me close to despair

The events of the past two weeks, the meeting of General Synod in November 2023, the conduct of the entire LLF process and the incompetence of the Church to respond the victims of abuse and implement an effective Safeguarding system all demonstrate to me a Church that has none of the characteristics that communicated to me 60 years ago by practice and example what Christianity looks and feels like. Words were not needed.