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.
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.
Can the hierarchy of the Church of England take us deep into the black hole, with courage deep enough to lead us into the unimaginable white hole through and beyond into an experience and reality named resurrection? I wish Synod would bring coherence and finality to a process that began with a profound vision, a radical new Christian inclusion, and with a trust that bringing people together would gradually transform and melt differences in the context of Christian love and prayer.
The Christian Church needs to engage with the question: “In what ways did Jesus rely on the contemporary orthodox, traditional Jewish teaching and doctrine contained in the Hebrew scriptures and worship and in what ways did he challenge them?” More importantly, it needs to understand what “life in all its fullness” means in reality for every human being and learn how to live and communicate this transformational truth.
What has become increasingly apparent in the two and a half decades since Lambeth 1998 in the Church of England and other parts of the Anglican Communion is that they have become unhealthy ecclesial bodies. They are unhealthy because their teaching and practice results in prejudice against and the abuse of women and LGBTQIA+ people. The support given to anti-gay bills by some Anglican churches and the homophobia and prejudice manifest in other Provinces demonstrates how dominant, abusive, prejudiced and unhealthy many parts of the Anglican Communion are. Only when Anglican churches recognise this will they move a step closer to manifesting Jesus’ understanding of the kingdom.
If the Church of England is unable to recognise God as manifested in the life of Jesus to be the presence of unconditional, infinite, intimate love in creation and evolution, a presence that all human beings are able to experience through the presence woven into creation of what Christianity identifies as the Holy Spirit, then the Church needs to reflect on what, from the Biblical witness to the life and teaching of Jesus in a twenty-first century understanding of reality, God might look like and where the Church has got God wrong.
The Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Bishop of Dover, speaking at General Synod about LLF on Saturday, said: “It strikes me that all our children and grandchildren are having sex – they’re having sex. More than half the people who come to us for marriage are living together and they’re having sex, so what is it about homosexual sex that we’re reacting in such a visceral way? Can we make sure at the end of the day God’s love is on the table and that we do not allow people to feel less than human but instead made in the image of God?”
The General Synod of the Church of England meets from 7th July for five days in York. There are a number of significant items on the agenda relating to issues affecting the well-being of our planet and members human race: climate change, Living in Love and Faith, safeguarding, and Church governance. Well, perhaps that last item isn’t of global or even personal significance, but it got me wondering: Who is responsible for the spiritual health of the Church of England and how does an institution with such an incredibly complicated structure better focus on what you and I might take to be the primary essence of being Christian.
In a heart-felt blog for ViaMedia the Revd Dr Charlie Bell writes of “a sense of almost total, paralysing powerlessness amongst ordinary churchgoers and clergy” in the Church of England. He proposes that “As a church, we need to commit ourselves to undertaking a serious spiritual health check.” Yesterday’s blog attempted to set out in some detail what the landscape looks like to me. When and where is such a radical movement going to start? Going public is the only way such a movement to persuade the Church of England to undertake a serious spiritual health check stands a chance of achieving anything.
Most bishops will be aware that same-sex couples are already sometimes offered services of blessing by parish clergy in their local church, although these are not yet authorised. We believe that God’s blessing on same-sex civil marriages and civil partnerships is always bestowed on our loving relationships. In failing to approve equal marriage in the Church of England the Bishops continue to deny that God blesses the loving, faithful relationships of all LGBTQIA+ people.
