House of Bishops overrides trans concerns

House of Bishops overrides trans concerns

Changing Attitude England has written to every Church of England bishop raising serious questions about the House of Bishops attitude to trans people resulting from their recent decision to review “attempts to explore questions of gender identity and transition and [for a second time] agreed to seek and commission an appropriate group to take this work forward.” The House first made a proposal to revisit trans issues in May 2021. This decision provoked a strong negative reaction from trans people, and in particular those involved in the LLF formation process who had experienced serious abuse.

Changing Attitude England wants to know why the House of Bishops has agreed to pursue a course of action rejected repeatedly as unnecessary and abusive by trans people? Trans people do not want any further attempts to explore questions of gender identity and transition to be made, nor are they asking for an ‘appropriate’ group to be commissioned to take any such work forward. We are deeply distrustful of the motives behind this latest proposal and of the competence of the House of Bishops to ensure a non-abusive environment for trans people is created.

Honest to God, Goodbye to God, and the Jesus Myth

Honest to God, Goodbye to God, and the Jesus Myth

I knew in 1962 at the age of 17 that I didn’t believe that things in the Bible that were accepted as literal truth by the Church were literally true. They were unbelievable. Sixty years later, I am far more disturbed by the disjunction between my faith and the belief system in today’s Church of England. A newly-published book by Chris Scott: The Jesus myth: a psychologist’s viewpoint is a succinct, clear, honest, practical book. Chris suggests that we need to make a paradigm shift from the twentieth and twenty-first century belief that truth consists in scientifically provable facts to mythical truth, stories that are about human experience that help us understand and interpret ourselves and our world.

LLF Next Steps Group plans to engage with stakeholder groups

LLF Next Steps Group plans to engage with stakeholder groups

In a recent letter to Changing Attitude England, the chair of the Next Steps Group, the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dame Sarah Mullaly wrote that “the members of the Next Steps Group are planning to engage with a wide range of stakeholder groups later this year, including members of Changing Attitude, and we look forward to that conversation in due course.” Changing Attitude England welcomes this proposal and will respond positively to the invitation. Indeed, we look forward to receiving details of the proposal as a matter of urgency given the limited time scale remaining to the LLF process.

Poll shows CofE majority support equal marriage for LGBTQIA+ people

Poll shows CofE majority support equal marriage for LGBTQIA+ people

A YouGov poll, commissioned by the Ozanne Foundation shows that a majority of members of the Church of England now support equal marriage for lesbian and gay couples despite the Church of England’s refusal to allow equal marriage or blessings in church. Changing Attitude England has been campaigning for the full equality of LGBTQIA+ people in the Church of England since 1995. The findings of the YouGov poll brings greater urgency to the need for equal marriage and ministry in the Church of England after more than four decades of exploration and study.

The Ghana “Anti-Gay” Bill hearings continue with a presentation from IDNOWA

The Ghana “Anti-Gay” Bill hearings continue with a presentation from IDNOWA

Davis Mac-Iyalla, now the Executive Director of the Interfaith Diversity Network of West Africa (IDNOWA), spoke against the passage of the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021 on Thursday 17th February 2022 at the third public hearing of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee on the bill. The bill, effectively an anti-LGBTQIA+ bill, will if passed in its current state, criminalise Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Agender people and any person or group supporting them, including family members, bishops, priests and pastors.

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.