Radically inclusive groups and networks in the Church of England pursuing Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence

Radically inclusive groups and networks in the Church of England pursuing Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence

The nineteen organisations and networks listed on this blog share, in my mind, a common interest, purpose and vision. They/We, are working towards the formulation of an answer to the existential question that haunts me – What kind of God do we believe in? A common, shared vision emerges from the statements of each group – one people in Christ, in creation, in shared experience and the pursuit of love, truth and justice, a vision that understands the universal, cosmic essence of the sacred, holy, divine presence in creation and in all of life and every human body, heart and soul.

Church of England campaign group attitudes to trans, intersex and non-binary people

Church of England campaign group attitudes to trans, intersex and non-binary people

We, diverse members of the human race, are one body, and the groups within the Christian Church that identify as progressive and inclusive, OneBodyOneFaith, Together, Equal, Changing Attitude England, Inclusive Evangelicals, Open Table Network and LGB Christians, Modern Church, Inclusive Church, Student Christian Movement, WATCH, Sea of Faith and Progressive Christianity Movement,

need to address the challenges presented by this year’s attacks on our identities and freedoms – and reform our relationships to create a unified working Body.

What kind of God do we believe in - Supernatural or Metaphysical?

What kind of God do we believe in - Supernatural or Metaphysical?

I am deeply conscious that my beliefs are thought to be dangerously out of tune with the Biblical, orthodox, traditional Christian matrix that many still observe. I am also out of tune with some members of my own ‘tribe’, the progressive reformers and transformers. And I am most deeply conscious of the world of 2025 in which the American President is wreaking havoc on global political, financial, trading and relational networks and institutions that have formed the bedrock of my life as a white, Western European 1945-born boy. I am also living in a Christian era riven by disagreements about gender and sexuality, traumatised by the unearthing of abuse, sexual and emotional, and that has yet to confront what Berger was struggling with in 1968 – what kind of God do we believe in?

Trusting our epiphany experiences

Trusting our epiphany experiences

I believe epiphany experiences are as much internal as well as external experiences. Indeed, epiphanies are in a sense entirely internal. They is nothing without us, our bodies, our body chemistry, our evolved mechanisms for sensing and interpreting the world around us. Transcendent reality ‘exists’ within us as much as it ‘exists’ beyond us, is more knowable within us if we can but find the courage to trust our intuition.

Living by intuitive, experiential, emotional faith

Living by intuitive, experiential, emotional faith

I knew at the age of 11 that I should trust my intuition and experience over the dogmas and teachings held by the Church and derived from the Bible through the authority of God. My sexuality was integral to my essence. Now I know more confidently, despite continuing hostility in the Church that in the uncertain dynamics of life, subject and object, the knower and the known, the self and Gods, are not separable. Relativity and the uncertainty principle require a non-dual mode of knowing whose essential nature is to be undivided from what it knows, counter-intuitive to the reality generally taught in Western Christian cultures.

Jesus and human flourishing or Trump, enemy of Christian humanism

Jesus and human flourishing or Trump, enemy of Christian humanism

I wish to be part of a movement in the Church that is reimagining Christian basics, recovering the Christian Church, not as an institution with commands, prohibitions, creeds and doctrines, but as a movement of people touched by the reality of God at the heart of their lives, nourishing the divine, the essence of God in the centre of our being, in our bodies and emotions, valuing and honouring the incarnational presence of the Christ.

A Jesus Christ centred church, simpler, humbler, bolder – Yeah!

A Jesus Christ centred church, simpler, humbler, bolder – Yeah!

A Jesus Christ centred church, simpler, humbler, bolder – yeah, go for it, Stephen Cotterell. The Jesus Christ centred church that is simpler, humbler, bolder, isn’t remotely visible on the horizon yet. You and your comrades in the House of Bishops are lost in an almost impenetrable maze of scriptural authority, archaic traditions and invalid reasons that you are showing no signs of the vision and courage necessary to develop the church of your dreams.