Passion and truth disrupt the carefully controlled agenda and atmosphere of General Synod meetings. Passion and truth are dangerous manifestations of human excess! Synod is structured to ensure that an unwelcome outbreak of Divine Passion, Jesus Hysteria, or Spirit-filled Enthusiasm is unlikely to occur. But it did during last Saturday afternoon’s question and answer session on Living in Love and Faith (LLF) at the University of York.
Before Synod
Prior to Synod assembling in York, the Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, and the Bishop of Truro, Philip Mounstephen, the co-chairs of the LLF steering group overseeing the implementation groups, had said: “The working groups set up by the College of Bishops to take forward the decision of General Synod on a way forward for the Church of England on identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage have been working at pace and are making good progress. We will be bringing a report to Synod updating in more detail on the progress that has been made.”
Questions and Answers
Chairing the session, Geoffrey Tattersall said that it was an item of non-business, an opportunity for an informal update on Living in Love and Faith. No standing orders were to apply. The Bishop of Truro, Philip Mounstephen then briefly opened the session by introducing the Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally. She gave an update of the process using a PowerPoint presentation.
Over the next two hours the Bishop of Truro presided over the question and answer session starting by asking each member of the panel to talk about some of the complexities and challenges they had faced, the panel being Bishop Sarah Mullally, London, Bishop Debbie Sellin, Southampton, Bishop Sam Corley, Stockport, Bishop Rosemarie Mallett, Croydon, Bishop Michael Ipgrave, Lichfield, Bishop Andrew Watson, Guildford and Mark Rowe, Bishop of Berwick.
By the end of the panel’s responses we were an hour into the session, when finally, the floor was opened to questions from Synod, Geoffrey inviting members to come forward in groups of three. Two members of Synod asked their questions with a passion, energy and directness that cut through the caution that characterises the way General Synod habitually conducts business.
Talking about us without us yet again
Jayne Ozanne, Diocese of Oxford, speaking one hour and thirty minutes into the session, stated the obvious to many of us who have been campaigning for LGBTQIA+ voices to be at the table and integral to any presentation or discussion of issues concerning us. Jayne started with a statement delivered with truth and passion: “We have eight straight people talking about LGBT people once again.”
This was greeted with vigorous and prolonged applause. Jayne responded: “We are used to clapping as at a football match for both sides.” There was more, tentative clapping. Jayne smiled. The clapping died out.
“People like me exist. We’re not going anywhere. Most of us believe God has called us to be witnesses, to be the grit in the oyster that tries to shape a church into something that truly believes in the love of God for all. We have sex, if we find the right partner.
“It is so hard, being talked about as if we get a special card saying we have to be single and celibate for life. Conservative friends, you can’t force me to believe something I don’t believe. It’s we LGBT people who pay the price constantly for that unity. I’m trying to change the direction in all this.
“To whom do young people growing up in churches who believe all those who disagree with me believe, to whom do they turn when they cannot carry the weight of the expectation on them, that they will transform themselves into something heterosexual or they will stay single and celibate for life? So panel, who can they talk to and how will they know they’ll be heard?”
Not one member of the bishops’ panel responded to Jayne’s challenge.
Gay and straight people have sex!
The Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Bishop of Dover, speaking two hours and six minutes into the session. Rose is a bishop with guts. She was on fire with truth and passion:
“I suspect that if my blood pressure were to be taken at the moment it would be off the Richter scale. It strikes me that all our children and grandchildren are having sex – they’re having sex – and yet I do not hear us saying we’re going to walk with them. We’re going to keep them in an outhouse.
“To hear brothers and sisters speaking so glibly, as if it’s normal that if we don’t quite get this how we want it we’re just to have to have differentiation again, as we did with women bishops. Actually the women bishops thing ain’t working. We are paying the price of it.
“I want to say to us, is it really the most important thing? Brothers and sisters, my heart is breaking listening to this kind of conversation when there are real issues out there.
“More than half the people who come to us for marriage are living together and they’re having sex, so what is it about homosexual sex that we’re reacting in such a visceral way? What is it saying about us? I really don’t know what the question is.
“I want all people to be able to walk in and receive God’s grace. Perhaps the question is, can we make sure at the end of the day God’s love is on the table and that we do not allow people to feel less than human but instead made in the image of God. That seems to be far more important than doctrine and anything else.”
I have no doubt the order in which people were called to ask a question was totally random, but the next questioner, Stephen Hoffman, Diocese of Guildford, began by responding to Bishop Rose before moving to ask a question:
“Bishop Rose, I would love you to enter into conversation with my thirty-seven year old triplets in relation to the speech you have just made. You might be interested in them being faithful Christian members of churches in London and Guildford. They have a different view to you in relation to those matters.”
Stephen Hoffman demonstrates the inability of many members of Synod to hear what has been said and process their emotions and reaction before they speak. He was snide, suggesting the Bishop of Guildford might enter a conversation with his thirty-seven year old triplets who were “faithful Christians”. Stephen implied that Bishop Rose, who in his mind clearly differed from their “faithful” Christian views was unfaithful. Stephen also dared to suggest that in the ten years of Shared Conversations and Living in Love and Faith conversations, Bishop Rose had never had a conversation with or listened to or understood “faithful Christians” like him and his daughters. The bishops on the panel being bishops unwilling or unable to recognise the dissonance going here ignored it. This typifies what goes on in the CofE, both in conversations about LGBTQI+ people and in the entire safeguarding process. It’s repeatedly abusive.
Bishops’ replies
In contrast with their failure to respond to Jayne’s challenge, bishops did respond to Rose. Is this because she’s a bishop? They acknowledged that the impassioned pleas from Rose and Stephen moved in opposite directions.
Mark Rowe reminded Synod of Eeva John’s question about what kind of church do we want to be. Do we want a church that reflects the love of Christ and creates generous space for all? WE (emphasised) are working that out, said Mark, in a word in desperate need of Jesus Christ. I would ask Mark whether they are desperate for a Jesus who would impose control on sexual activity, restricting it to married straight couples only. I also challenge Mark’s claim that the world is in desperate need of Jesus Christ. Not for this Jesus Christ, it isn’t.
Sarah Mullally, responding to Stephen Hoffman, said it’s not as binary as he makes out. All congregations are mixed. There is disagreement and complexity within congregations. She also picked up on a point he made about the five guiding principles, and I add this only to make public the name of a group consulted within London Diocese – The House of Bishops Standing Commission on the House of Bishops Declaration on the Five Guiding Principles. It’s about people and how we relate to each other, said Sarah – God is relational. Yes!`
Finally, Andrew Watson said there is a difference between pastoral care and teaching. Pastorally we all fall short. The challenge facing us is, do we therefore change the teaching. It’s not about sex, #it’s about our failure to respond to Jesus’ being “full of grace and truth. Jesus sets impossibly high targets. I take it that Andrew believes orthodoxy always trumps orthopraxis and that right teaching trumps varieties of relationship and sex. I’m not surprised. His reputation isn’t good among LGBTQIA+ people in Guildford Diocese.
I’m grateful to Jayne and Bishop Rose for having spoken truth with passion. It’s a scary thing to do, especially in General Synod, even when the applause is with you.
Thank God Jayne is there to confront bishops with the fact that at the moment, and far into the future, it seems, the culture of the Church of England, its life, teaching and practice, makes life impossible for everyone, LGBTQIA+ people and our allies, friends, families and churches, to live our Christian faith in a way that is deeply Christ-like, deeply humanitarian and just, deeply loving and truthful. People will continue to leave the Church, consulting Jayne and me and many others on the way out or bidding a sad farewell.
Thank God Rose is there to speak sanity and truth and healthy, deep Christian wisdom to her brother and sister bishops. No, the Five Guiding Principles are not working and Issues in Human Sexuality is not working and Living in Love and Faith is not working to embrace all within the infinite, intimate, unconditional, unadulterated love of God.