In a letter to The Times following the death of Archbishop Desmond Tututu, Canon Mark Oakley, the Dean of St John’s College, Cambridge, says:
“he doesn't know many happy bishops at the moment, what with the issues of safeguarding, finance and downsizing. They are not helped by the demand that as "symbols of unity" they should all somehow agree in public. It means that bishops today find it hard to be symbols of integrity, perhaps a more important vocation, and are forced to go into theological and moral camouflage, when the Church and public arena need imaginative, honest input. The result has been an internal culture set by a dominant committee-language that ticks boxes but resonates with virtually no one.”
Tutufication
Canon Mark coins a new word, saying “we need a brave Tutufication of the Church, allowing bishops more creativity, freedom of speech and honesty about what they believe, with a commitment to never let religion compromise justice.” I believe the entirety of the Church of England needs a far more radical ‘Tutufication’. For a start, the Church needs bishops who with the courage and independence of mind to individually Tutuficate themselves. Today’s House of Bishops is composed of men and women with none of the Christian conviction, courage, radicalism, independence of mind, freedom of heart and soul, playfulness and energy that fuelled Desmond Tutu and transformed people open enough to respond to his proclamation of God’s unconditional love, energy, truth and justice.
The problem isn’t solely with the House of Bishops. The Church of England needs a radical re-capturing of Jesus' teaching and essence implied by Mark’s idea of ‘Tutufication. More than that, Christianity as a whole needs to be ‘Tutuified’ – and I predict that it isn’t going to happen.
Collegiality - a corporate agreement to suppress truth
The concept of the collegiality of bishops requiring them to be the "focus of unity" was enforced by Archbishop George Carey as the Church of England struggled to get General Synod to agree to the ordination of women as priests and later, their consecration as bishops. This was only achieved by providing legal protection for bishops, clergy and parishes that refused to accept this transformation of the place of women in the Church and the kingdom of God, a transformation into life in all its fulness proclaimed by Jesus.
The idea that bishops must maintain their commitment to collegiality is now being used to delay full equality in the Church for LGBTIQ+ people. All bar two or three bishops have constrained themselves from saying or writing anything other than the currently agreed line on human sexuality. Collegiality has become a self-imposed discipline observed by almost every bishop not to disagree by expressing in public a commitment to justice and equality for LGBTIQ+ people. Corporately, the House of Bishops has agreed to silence by not voicing their support for the full equality of LGBTIQ+ people. This has created a grossly unequal playing field for the LLF process since those bishops opposed to LGBTIQ+ equality observe no such commitment to restrain from comment.
Jesus revealed our human and divine essence
My campaigning self can see that changes in attitude to the place of women and LGBTIQ+ people and people of colour in the Church of England can and will only be made following a radical re-imagining of Christian teaching, practice and life rooted in understanding that believing that Jesus the Christ integrated the human and the divine, manifesting the challenging truth that the human vocation is to integrate the fully human and the fully divine dimensions within ourselves. There was a period in the last century and in previous Christian centuries when this faith in human wisdom and sanctity flourished. It barely survives today.
The House of Bishops imposition of or collusion with the idea of Collegiality as agreeing not to voice disagreement is having a far more disastrous effect on the Living in Love and Faith process and the achievement of justice and equality. The new dogma of Collegiality has been affected by the legislation for the ordination of women and the inclusion of women in the episcopate. The new dogma has enshrined intolerance and prejudice in the legal system of the Church of England. It has prioritised the tolerance of attitudes towards human difference and diversity that are contrary to the teaching and wisdom of Jesus and the essence of the Gospel. Today’s doctrine of Collegiality enshrines prejudice, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and racial prejudice. It has many further deleterious effects, reinforcing the tolerance of and difficulty of dealing with abuse in the Church, the grotesque effects and failures of the CDM process, the vast sums spent on ineffective Safeguarding, and the even more vast and futile sums being spent on reconfiguring the whole mission and ministry of the Church of England.
In my previous blog I wrote that Christianity is no longer fuelled by the wisdom of Jesus who taught that our pursuit of the pearl of great price is the essence of our journey into the heart of God. This can only be accomplished as we journey through the whole of our lives into the core of our being – our experience, our feelings, our loves and losses, births and deaths. We can only do this when the people around us are living this life themselves and those who have experienced the call are showing though their lives how to engage in this risky, adventurous pursuit. The House of Bishops do not show this through the lives. As a result, the members of the Church of England are not being shown the path nor given the encouragement need to begin the adventure. The essence of Jesus’ teaching is being lost in today’s Church, is indeed, pretty much lost already, despite the endeavours of many good men and women, lay and ordained. This invisible change (most of the people I engage with do not see it) is, for me, the primary reason for the declining numbers of Christian adherents. The many people following the Way of Jesus that discloses the pearl of great price and draws people into the unconditional, infinite, intimate love of the essence named God do so despite the Church and largely beyond the boundaries of organised religion.