Christianity for me is about being more healthy and spiritually human and humane. This is in dramatic contrast to our primary dependence on a Christianity that has been about salvation, good and evil, a dualistic theology and philosophy, a God who rescues and sends his Son to be a sacrifice for our sins.
I have lived a dissenting life, a person at odds one way or another with the direction of travel of the institutional Church that, despite this, selected me for training and ordained me as a priest but hasn’t known what to do with me for the past twenty years. I’m at odds with the primary direction of travel of today’s C of E. I knew I was at odds with God at the age of 11. I still am. I still believe God to be at odds with many widely held ideas about God and the Church’s map of God.
I believe the Church should embody and model essential qualities in today’s context of a Trumpian world in which autocratic, abusive leadership is sought by people who are more fragile, vulnerable, insecure, abused and abusing and addictive. The qualities and values vital to healthy, non-abusive human societies and cultures are needed as primary qualities to be developed in the life of every congregation and the ministry of every priest, preacher, teacher and leader.
It is clear from the General Synod Living in Love and Faith debate and the voting figures that significant numbers of the Houses of Clergy and Laity do not trust the House of Bishops to do anything that will achieve the outcome worked for by progressives seeking LGBTQIA+ equality over the past 8 years, or 15 years, or 40 years. As bishops speaking in the debate revealed, maintaining the unity of the Church of England is a higher priority for the House of Bishops than achieving a radical new Christian inclusion for LGBTQIA+ people – inclusion that includes equal marriage for clergy and laity.
Robert Thompson, priest, friend and ally, has shared the speech he would have given in Thursday afternoon’s General Synod Living in Love and Faith debate at Church House, Westminster, had he been present and not at home recovering from eye surgery. He says it is perhaps fitting that he write now about sight — because the question before synod is whether the Church of England is willing to see clearly.
Last Saturday the Bishop of Salisbury commissioned nine volunteer chaplains to offer confidential and non-judgemental spiritual and pastoral care to LGBTQIA+ Christians. It’s a great initiative, following similar models in a dozen other dioceses. But I fear that it is so long since we had great visions declared for us of what a healthy, inclusive, Christ-centred Church would look like that we have somehow mislaid the moment for action and are settling for support and repair work rather than challenging the bishops and pursuing a radical Christian vision.
The homily written by Fr Robert Thompson, vicar of St Mary’s with All Souls’, Kilburn and St James’s and the Sherriff Centre, West Hampstead and due to be preached by him at the Eucharist of Full Inclusion on Thursday 22 January 2025, the Feast of Vincent of Saragossa, Deacon and Martyr and the launch service for Together London.
The House of Bishops letter sets out an agreed position as the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process is brought to a conclusion and confirms an agreed approach to any further changes. I do not agree with the position reached by the Bishops, nor with their approach to further changes and I hope fervently that Together and every other group dissents from the House of Bishops’ position, abandoning the Church at the end not only of the LLF process but of seventy years of reports and endless meetings and Synod debates.
The public blessing of same-sex relationships, civil partnerships and equal marriage can be celebrated in churches now, without waiting for the House of Bishops to approve services. We can pursue this goal ahead of the equally important ultimate goal of changing the Marriage Canons to allow equal marriage in church.
Some months ago I came across Sam Howson’s YouTube videos and his response to the news about Mike Pilavachi and his abusive activities in the Soul Survivor ministry. Sam’s latest video, Frankly Gay, is an interview with Robert Thompson, vicar of the parish of St Mary with All Souls Kilburn and St James West Hampstead, member of General Synod and a comrade in the business of campaigning for a transformed Church of England in which the Archbishops’ promise of radical new Christian inclusion means exactly that for LGBTQIA+ people – radical equality in marriage and in ministry.
