Bringing yourself to life might be a very good, brief description of what motivates me as a Christian priest. In the course of my life I have discovered that “life in all its fullness” is something to be discovered and ‘worked on’ in our Selves, our bodies, emotions, energy, breathing. In the here and now of our being is where we encounter God and where our spiritual work is to be done, the work that enriches, enhances and energises our experience of God and his Son Jesus Christ, the life-giver and unconditional lover whose way is “life in all its fullness.
Evolution and Energy Fields
For fourteen years I worked episodically, writing a book, attempting an inclusive account of evolution that placed the Hebrew and Christian narratives within a holistic, cosmic framework. It was an ambitious enterprise. I never managed to find a publisher. Perhaps elements of what I have written will eventually find their way into a simpler, more publishable book. Meanwhile, I will post sections of the book here, ingredients of my faith in unadulterated love.
Anticipatory Faith
Science has demonstrated that we live in a universe that is still awakening and is therefore open to new possibilities of being. An anticipatory faith looks at the universe as the primary subject of awakening. Until relatively modern times religions assumed that to find out what’s really going on in the universe, an ongoing transformation of hearts and minds was essential. Our own minds and hearts are required to undergo an extraordinary transformation to put us in touch with the deepest meaning of the cosmic story. Each of us can contribute to this cosmic awakening.
Has Lambeth 2022 blown fear of change out of the water?
Has this Lambeth Conference successfully achieved a breakthrough leading to a successful outcome for the Living in Love and Faith project and a transformation of the status of LGBTQIA+ people leading to our radical new Christian inclusion? The failure of all but two Church of England bishops to sign the letter supporting LGBTQIA+ people is deeply distressing for us and our allies. Many are understandably very angry and feel betrayed.
Can Christianity overcome dualism?
As empires diminish in our era, aggressive sectarian impulses are seemingly in the ascendant. It is our impulse to sort people into those like-me and those not-like-me. I perceive the impulse to sort traditional, orthodox, Bible-believing Christians from progressive, inclusive Christians to be an example of this. Twenty-five years on from the Kuala Lumpur Global South conference the conflict over gay sexuality and intimacy has never gone away. It has broken out again at Lambeth 2022 and is dominating the agenda. The organisers have not been able to control it.
Revisiting the Lambeth 1998 Resolution 1.10 plenary session
The Lambeth Calls fiasco has broken the trust that LGBTQIA+ people had placed in the LLF process. It has shown that we cannot trust the bishops to act honestly and with transparency. It shows why the Church of England needs to change. The bishops of the church need to admit that homophobia and transphobia are endemic, systemically, in the structures of the church and the ethos of the LLF material and process.
Lambeth Call on Human Dignity draft didn’t include Lambeth 1998 Resolution 1.10
Bishop Kevin Robertson of the diocese of Toronto has posted an article on Facebook about the Lambeth Calls document that was released last week, days ahead of the Lambeth Conference. He is a member of the Human Dignity Call drafting group that wrote the Call. Kevin says the group did not discuss the reaffirmation of Lambeth I.10 and it never appeared in any of the early drafts of their work together. He says that the Human Dignity Call in its current form does not represent the mind of the drafting group and distances himself from the reaffirmation of Lambeth I.10 in the strongest possible way.
An Open Letter to the Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of England
Changing Attitude England is one of the seven groups who have written an open letter to the Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of England expressing our concern about the draft Lambeth Call on Human Dignity, to be discussed and possibly issued by the forthcoming Lambeth Conference. This Call has been drafted with reference to Resolution 1.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference. It says: “It is the mind of the Anglican Communion as a whole that same gender marriage is not permissible. Lambeth Resolution I.10 (1998) states that the “legitimizing or blessing of same sex unions” cannot be advised. It is the mind of the Communion to uphold “faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman in lifelong union.” Were it to be accepted, it would fatally sabotage the Living in Love and Faith process and rule out any possibility of progress towards the Archbishops’ vision of a radical new Christian inclusion for LGBTQIA+ people.
General Synod chaplain resigns under homophobic pressure
Do gay people contaminate the Church of England? This question has been haunting me since I learnt yesterday that the Archbishops of Canterbury and York seem to have accepted the resignation of the Revd Andrew Hammond, Chaplain at St John’s College, Cambridge, openly gay and appointed as chaplain to the General Synod by the Archbishops last year. Andrew offered his resignation as a result of homophobic reactions to his contribution to the act of worship at Synod on Tuesday morning, part of an act of worship themed round humility. Andrew’s key point was that humility is the opposite of the sin of pride. The Gay Pride movement is using the word as the opposite of a sin that produces humiliation and shame.
The cosmos, planet earth, consciousness, and energy – life’s spiritual adventure
We, homo sapiens, matter. We, us, me, our souls and bodies, feelings and energy, our consciousness and self consciousness, our self-awareness and our breathing, the well-being and health of our body systems equally with our environment, all this matters, and contemporary culture encourages addictions rather than awareness of just how much we matter.