In 2017 Changing Attitude England proposed a simple goal for the outcome of the Living in Love and Faith process for LGBTQIA+ people. It is for us the synthesis of the Archbishops’ proclaimed ambition to achieve a Radical New Christian Inclusion:

Full equality for LGBTQIA+ people in relationships and ministry

At a recent Conversation on Race and Faith, a Black History Month event held at SAINT church, Shoreditch, Professor Robert Beckford, theologian at the Queen’s Foundation Birmingham outlined steps towards the action people of colour should be taking and named LGBTQIA+ people as needing to take the same steps.

In Theology

We need to understand that grace means everyone is made in the image and likeness of God according to the Bible. We bear the image of a multitude in God.
We need to understand that the divine nature of God and the model of the Trinity means showing respect, making room for each other, creating inclusiveness and freedom.
Christians are called to follow the sanctified life, loving the stranger and the enemy.
We have to translate the sanctified life into actions to achieve radical structural change.

By Action

We go to work, organising ourselves to challenge the Christian Nationalist discourse.
Those of us wanting to oppose and change the narrative have got to be an active part of the solution.
We need to form communities of resistance offering counter-cultural models in the Church.
We need to develop our moral courage. Are we prepared to stand up and be visible and audible, doing and saying the right things?

The Implications

Changing the structures mean changing how people are trained for ministry, integrating black and liberation theology in courses. The curriculum has to be changed because at the moment the theology taught results in racism. [Robert would say the same about LGBTQIA+ Queer theology]
Those who are doing the teaching have to be scrutinised to ensure the theology is inclusive, radical and interventionist.
We have to ask the question: what would the heavenly radical Kingdom of God look like with LGBTQIA+ folk on the Board?

In conversation with Robert at the end of the event, he wondered what the attitude of the SAINT churches was to LGBTQIA equality since the mood turned notably cold when he’d referred to us. They are not pro-gay equality, I said. A few moments later I asked one of the SAINT church leaders what their policy about LGBTQIA+ inclusion was. He declined to answer. I have received the same response in every SAINT and HTB church plant.

History and Context:

The Rev Malcolm Johnson, in his time as Rector of St Botolph’s Aldgate, 1974-1993, conducted over three hundred blessings of lesbian and gay couples.

If Changing Attitude England were still a registered charity with a legally constituted Board and I still had an active support network I would be circulating them and discussing with them an action plan based on and developing Robert Beckford’s suggestions. We, together, would be forming ideas to put to local groups and the national network presenting ideas for people to ‘go to work’ on.

Being at the table

If we were at the table of the House of Bishops, open, visible and articulate pro-full inclusion LGBTQIA+ people, then our voices would be heard and the experience of many of us being sexual people in lifetime intimate relationships would be recorded alongside the voices of conservative evangelical anti-full inclusion bishops.

We would be able to argue for the best path to follow to achieve the radical new inclusion of LGBTQIA+ people implied by the Archbishops.

Canons

Professor Helen King recently set out with clarity the routes for change possible under Canons B 2, B 4.2, B 4.3 and B 5.

Canon B 5 was used to commend the used to commend the use of the Prayers of Love and Faith in the context of existing services.

Canon B 2 could/would be used by means of the full synodical legal mechanism to allow the use of stand-alone services of blessing anywhere.

Canon B 4.3 would allow individual diocesan bishops to authorise the use of stand-alone services in their diocese.

Canon B 4.2 could be used by the Archbishops to authorise the use of stand-alone services anywhere and everywhere.

Using Canons B 4.2 or B 4.3 would raise the possibility of a legal challenge from the Alliance conservative forces. My research over the past three months in the dioceses of London, Winchester and Chichester has unearthed information about what is going in the contemporary HTB/Alliance/Church Revitalisation Trust axis. Their clergy and congregations can be subjected to a counter legal challenge by us because of their failure to worship using orthodox, approved forms of service.

We, progressive, inclusive movements and individuals in the church seem to be unaware of the extreme danger to the kind of Christian life that has been normative for us, let alone the kind of radically new inclusive Christian live we dream of for the future.

Thirty years of transformation and resistance

In the past thirty years England has enshrined in law transformational legal changes affecting the status and lives of LGBQIA+ people. The same cannot confidently be said for Trans people, sadly.

Over the same period the Church of England has failed to undergo a similar transformation, traumatised by the 1998 Lambeth Conference, Resolution 1.10, the failure to appoint Jeffrey John as bishop of Reading, the election of Gene Robinson as a bishop and the creation of GAFCON.

The optimism raised by the Archbishops with their vision of a new radical Christian inclusion, responding to the transformations enacted in civic society of which the Church of England is an integral part, has been hugely disappointing. Counter-revolutionary forces have been allowed to slow and derail progress towards full and equal inclusion for LGBTQIA+ people in the CofE that matches our inclusion in wider English society.

It’s time to go to work

It’s time to organise ourselves, challenging status quo narrative, forming communities of resistance, offering counter-cultural models in the Church, develop our moral courage, standing up visibly and audibly, being active agents in pursuing the full equality of LGBTQIA+ people in the Kingdom of God.

You are part of the solution

You, reading this blog, have a voice and a conviction. You can do things to create the change we envision. Engage with your local clergy, congregation, friends, PCC, Churchwardens and allies. Ask them to join you in committing your local church to as fully inclusive agenda as is possible, including the public blessing of same-sex relationships, CPs and marriages.

Encourage the other progressive organisations, Together, Inclusive Church, Equal, Open Table, Network to find the courage to work for transformation by challenging the failure of the House of Bishops to commit to a radical new Christian inclusion for LGBTQIA+ people. Affirm lesbian and gay clergy in their relationships, in a civil partnership, and those dreaming of marriage.

Take courage yourselves from the courage shown by the Deans of Canterbury, Southwark and Salisbury in writing and preaching about the transformative vision we share and the isolation and abuse we endure.

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You are part of the greatest resource in the Church of England – people with vision and a passion for the Gospel proclaiming the inclusive good news of life in all its fulness.

To transform our vision into reality I’m going to need help and we are all going to need help. Join the Changing Attitude Facebook Group and engage with each other there.

Contact me directly if you want to volunteer to help: ccmcoward@aol.com