LGBTQIA+ Representation on NSG and House of Bishops

LGBTQIA+ Representation on NSG and House of Bishops

In November 2021 Changing Attitude England proposed that six LGBTQIA+ people should be appointed to both the Next Steps Group (NSG) and the House of Bishops, in a way that is analogous to the appointment of senior women and to the proposal for UK Minority Ethnic / Global Majority Heritage ‘participant observers’ recommendation. The Bishop of London has replied saying that the Next Steps Group is now working on a proposal to the House of Bishops that goes at least some way to respond to this aspiration.

NSG declines to define radical new Christian inclusion

NSG declines to define radical new Christian inclusion

The Bishop of London, chair of the Next Steps Group, has replied to our letter asking the NSG to define radical new Christian inclusion. She says it is not something that can be achieved by a top-down process of publishing a definition of ‘radical new Christian inclusion’ but something that the whole church needs to discover and live out together and that is what LLF is trying to achieve. The LLF Course does not mention of radical new Christian inclusion. Apart from seven pages in the LLF Book, the bishops have provided no guidance to help people think about, let alone respond to, the vision presented by the Archbishops in 2017 and taken as a sign of hope for LGBTIQ+ people.

Changing Attitude England’s campaign for equality

Changing Attitude England’s campaign for equality

Changing Attitude England proposes to encourage those who support equality in relationship and ministry for LGBTIQ+ people in the Church of England to communicate their commitment to equality to the LLF hub by the end of April. We want to disrupt the complacency of the House of Bishops by organising a ‘write in’, getting the huge middle of the Church not just engaged but responding and letting the bishops know, which is exactly what the Bishop of London has pleaded for in a recent Church Times article.

Harry Williams – Life Abundant or Life Resisting?

Harry Williams – Life Abundant or Life Resisting?

In the sermon Life Abundant or Life Resisting? published in The True Wilderness Harry Williams asks whether our Christianity makes for a better and happier world or does not. He believed that quite often it does not - that Christianity in many of its forms is not a good but an evil thing. I think the theology of Living in Love and Faith draws on an unhealthy conception of God. The Christian story, it says, “is about our rebellion, disobedience and refusal to depend on one another and on God – a disorder which has infected the whole of creation. This results in a form of Christian teaching that makes the Church of England an unhappy place for me, a gay man.

Sorting out the disagreements about homosexuality

Sorting out the disagreements about homosexuality

In an article in the current issue of the Spectator Theo Hobson thinks this might be the year in which the Church of England sorts out its deep divisions over homosexuality. He wants to assert the centrality of liberal Anglo-Catholicism in the Church and this means treating evangelicalism with a bit less respect. Diversity must be allowed: liberal parishes must be free to conduct gay weddings, evangelical parishes must be allowed to refuse to. I disagree. The pragmatic arrangements made to tolerate dissent on the ordination of women have enshrined an utterly unchristian intolerance and prejudice in the life of the Church.

Collegiality and Tutufication

Collegiality and Tutufication

Canon Mark Oakley has coined a new word, saying “we need a brave Tutufication of the Church, allowing bishops more creativity, freedom of speech and honesty about what they believe, with a commitment to never let religion compromise justice.” I believe the entirety of the Church of England needs a far more radical ‘Tutufication’. For a start, the Church needs bishops who with the courage and independence of mind to individually Tutuficate themselves. Today’s House of Bishops is composed of men and women with none of the Christian conviction, courage, radicalism, independence of mind, freedom of heart and soul, playfulness and energy that fuelled Desmond Tutu and transformed people open enough to respond to his proclamation of God’s unconditional love, energy, truth and justice.

The True Wilderness: Harry Williams’ guide to living from within the depth of experience

The True Wilderness: Harry Williams’ guide to living from within the depth of experience

I have been re-reading Harry Williams’ The True Wilderness, first published in 1965. My heart and soul yearn for the wisdom of priests, teachers and preachers who describe Christianity from the depth, wisdom and truth I am finding again in Harry Williams. He decided that what he proposed to say had to come from the depth of his own experience. He concluded that we must look for God in what we are, in the whole kaleidoscope of our personal experience. Our real enemies are inside us, he says. The enemy that we habitually obey, that tells us we must conform to other people’s expectations and the modes of living approved by the Church rather than claiming our freedom to live and love according to our heart and soul’s longing and desire. As for me, I’ve had enough avoidance of reality for LGBTIQ+ people in the Church of England, enough of the House of Bishops’ avoidance of my reality and experience as a gay man, enough of suppressing the energy and love of the divine presence within me. Welcome 2022, as a year of campaigning vigour unfolds.

Abuse of LGBTIQ+ people in Ghana and Living in Love and Faith

Abuse of LGBTIQ+ people in Ghana and Living in Love and Faith

In To Heal and Not to Hurt Rosie Harper describes the God formulated by contemporary teachings as “a tiny, religious, defensive God.” She thinks the Church of England’s weak response to survivors exposes two crucial fault lines. The first is the paucity of the vision of God. The second is behaviour that implies their faith is no faith at all. The church responds without love, care, and reparation to the very people it has itself harmed. This is serious and potentially fatal. It seems that the faith is not true. Christianity doesn’t change lives when loving God does not result in loving your neighbour.

Time to confront the crisis of a decadent Christianity

Time to confront the crisis of a decadent Christianity

In an article in last Saturday’s Guardian, Ben Okri describes how he has found it necessary to develop an attitude that he refers to as existential creativity. Okri believes we have to be strong dreamers asking unthinkable questions. Our whys ought to go to the core of what we are. Then we ought to set about remaking ourselves. The Archbishops of the Church of England claim to believe a radical (brave) new Christian inclusion is called for. For this to become a reality we, too, need to be strong dreamers asking unthinkable questions going to the core of what and who we are as people of God, called to set about remaking ourselves in the image of Jesus the Christ.

CA England call for appointment of six members of LGBTIQ+ community to the House of Bishops

CA England call for appointment of six members of LGBTIQ+ community to the House of Bishops

In a letter to the Next Steps Group Changing Attitude England proposes that as soon as possible, in order to allow a truly radically inclusive discussion of the LLF process, its outcome and its next steps, six members of the LGBTQIA+ community should be appointed to the House of Bishops and to the Next Steps Group.