LLF – Next Step Group bishops to hold meetings with interested groups

LLF – Next Step Group bishops to hold meetings with interested groups

Changing Attitude England is one of the groups invited to one of a series of two hour long meetings with bishops, members of the Next Steps Group, on the afternoon of Friday 30 September. In the morning Inclusive Church, OneBodyOneFaith, Diverse Church, and the General Synod Gender and Sexuality Group are invited and in the afternoon Changing Attitude England is joined by the Ozanne Foundation and Equal. The meetings on 30 September will be the first time ever that bishops have met corporately with representatives of inclusive and LGBTQIA+ organisations.

Unknowing God

Unknowing God

In 1957, aged nearly 12, I knew with an arrogant conviction that if God disapproved of me loving another boy, then God was wrong and I was right. I knew I was right to trust my feelings and physical desire for intimacy and love. I trusted my intuition, my awareness of who I am. I have had to learn again to trust the arrogant wisdom of my youthful self. Today I am still learning to trust and listen to my contemporary self, my body and feelings, and the energy within.

The dangerous theology of Ian Paul

The dangerous theology of Ian Paul

Ian Paul published a long blog in response to Richard Coles’ ‘honest reflections’ in a Times article published on April 17th.in the context of Richard’s retirement from parish ministry. I have written a response to Ian, edited and improved with the help of Changing Attitude England’s steering group. want to go public in order to comment critically on Ian’s thinking. He raises questions that affect me deeply and intimately as a gay man, a priest who is partnered and in love and retired from active ministry.

Radical New Christian Inclusion - the Silence of the Bishops

Radical New Christian Inclusion - the Silence of the Bishops

According to the Bishop of London LLF offers the whole church the opportunity to explore what ‘radical new Christian inclusion’ means. It is not something that can be achieved by a top-down process of publishing a definition but something that the whole church needs to discover and live out together. The LLF Course never mentions radical new Christian inclusion, let alone invites people to explore a definition together. In providing no introduction to the concept nor any account of how it is to be lived out the bishops, the teachers and guardians of the faith, have proved themselves inadequate to the prophetic vision and courage required to ensure the LLF process is functional and will deliver a visionary outcome.

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.