Two developments affecting the place of LGBTQIA+ people and our allies in the Church of England have occurred as a result of the General Synod meeting in February. One is the programme of Living in Love and Faith activities announced by the lead bishop, the Rt Revd Martyn Snow of Leicester. The other is the creation of Together for the Church of England: Campaigning for a Church of England for All. This is apparently an amalgamation of GSGSG (General Synod Gender and Sexuality Group) and MOSAIC. The GSGSG is to become Together On General Synod (TOGS). TOGS is to be a campaign rather than a membership organisation and aims to link to distinct organising groups in every diocese. Let’s look at the LLF proposals first.
Living in Love and Faith – next steps
A Programme Board is to be put in place to oversee the ongoing work of LLF. It will include the Bishop of Leicester as lead bishop with other bishops convening working groups and senior NCI staff working on LLF. Three working groups are to be re-formed to take forward more detailed proposals:
1. Pastoral Guidance Working Group - to draft Part 3 of the Pastoral Guidance to be chaired by a bishop with representatives from Synod.
2. Pastoral Reassurance Working Group - to draft an outline proposal for the minimum structural provision that is both necessary and proportionate also to be chaired by a bishop with representatives from Synod.
3. Prayers of Love and Faith (PLF) Working Group – to plan the process by which standalone PLF can be brought forward for authorisation or approval also to be chaired by a bishop with representatives from Synod.
The working groups will meet at least three times before the July meeting of General Synod, including a residential gathering in early May ahead of the House of Bishops’ meeting later in May.
The work of the three working groups will be brought back periodically to the Programme Board, to ensure an integrated package across these areas can, with the agreement of the Business Committee, be brought to Synod in July.
So, four boards or working groups are being created.
Alongside this they will have separate meetings with key stakeholder groups to help enable progress ahead of the July group of sessions. If the number of stakeholder meetings is going to be similar to those previously held, the total number of meetings announced is going to be around fifteen in the next three months.
There will be an open invitation to all Synod members to express interest in helping with one of the working groups or to be involved in stakeholder gatherings. They want a balance of people in each of these. The groups will not involve just the “usual suspects” but rather be a wide-ranging group of people who have not necessarily engaged extensively in the LLF process up to now. For continuity, they will involve some who have been involved in previous steering or reference groups. All expressions of interest will be considered by the Programme Board and LLF Staff Team, and the membership of the working groups will reflect the diversity of views held across General Synod and the wider church, including recognising the diversity of views held by LGBTQI+ people and those of Global Majority Heritage. Good luck with this ambitious proposal!
It’s unclear whether Synod members will be invited to submit their names to join one or more of these groups or whether the secretariat will invite people of their choosing to achieve what they say will be people reflecting a diversity of views. One thing is for sure, the views of LGBTQIA+ people will be ‘balanced’ against those holding homophobic or transphobic views.
‘They’ will also put in place the two ‘formal’ groups already outlined following the commendation of the PLF:
Pastoral Consultative Group – to aid bishops, diocesan staff and others with answers to the broad questions that arise from the implementation of PLF and other LLF work comprising a small number of bishops supported by consultants.
Independent Review Panel – to hear/consider concerns about the implementation of the PLF and application of the Pastoral Guidance, and to hold bishops and diocesan staff to account and make recommendations for addressing justifiable concerns. This is likely to have an initial interim stage and be made up of a panel of people with a range of theological positions and professional experience.
What????
Who thought all this up? Someone who wanted to sabotage progress towards the radical new inclusion of LGBTQIA+ people in a reasonable time-scale?
The whole process is run and controlled by bishops. Involvement in the process is limited to members of General Synod apart from meetings “with key stakeholder groups to help enable progress ahead of the July group of sessions”. This presumably means Changing Attitude England and other stakeholder groups might get a look in when everything has effectively been decided. Our core initial input will be zero.
Together for the Church of England
At Synod a new organisation was apparently announced: Together – Together for the Church of England: Campaigning for a Church of England for All. It’s a kind of amalgamation of two groups: GSGSG (General Synod Gender and Sexuality Group and MOSAIC (The Movement of Supporting Anglicans for an Inclusive Church) and partnering with Inclusive Church, Inclusive Evangelicals, WATCH and the Campaign for Equal Marriage in the Church of England. GSGSG is to become Together On General Synod (TOGS) and aims to link to distinct organising groups in every diocese. TOGS is to be a campaign rather than a membership organisation.
One of the founders of TOGS has said that GSGSG and the few groups listed above were just the start. There is to be a specific focus to how the new group will try and work which does not inhibit other groups doing their own excellent work, support and campaigning. This suggests that TOGS exists as a new, independent organisation alongside others. The membership requirement seems to be whether an organisation has an identity as a General Synod group.
Two Fundamental Objectives
I have concerns about the new organisation. The first is that it has come into being without involving Changing Attitude England. The working model is not inclusive despite Together’s first fundamental objective being to “unite those seeking to remove all discrimination in the Church of England, especially where it is embodied in the formal and legal structures of the Church.”
Together’s second fundamental objective is “to work for a Church of England in which people of differing convictions live together in unity.” This is the Church of England House of Bishops’ ambition for the Church. As my recent blogs have made clear, and following Adrian Thatcher’s book Vile Bodies, I do not agree that all people of differing convictions are committed to Christian beliefs and values as I have always understood them. Specifically, for Changing Attitude England there is no place for abuse, prejudice or discrimination in the Christian Church and no place for misogyny, homophobia, transphobia or racism. The full inclusion of LGBTQIA+ people is going to come into conflict once again with primary desire of the bishops to hold the Church together despite our dramatically different understanding of what the essence of Christianity is.
Three Quinquennial Goals
Together identifies three Quinquennial Goals for the current General Synod:
a) To ensure fulfilment of decisions of the House of Bishops, endorsed by General Synod, to allow services of blessing for same-sex couples, and to replace Issues in Human Sexuality with guidance which allows ordinands and clergy to enter same-sex marriage unrestrictedly.
b) To encourage widening support for legislation to allow same-sex marriage in the Church of England in those parishes which wish to celebrate it.
c) To support all those affected by discrimination in the Church today in other areas, especially gender identity, in partnership with other groups.
Changing Attitude as a campaign group
Changing Attitude was founded in 1995 to do exactly that – to change attitudes, our attitudes as well as the attitudes of the Church of England towards us. It was from the start a campaigning organisation wanting to achieve change. I had to learn how to campaign, and did, from people like Richard Kirker and Peter Tatchell and in particular, from Lambeth 1998 onwards, from friends and colleagues in Integrity USA. They had honed their skills and wisdom over a number of decades, inspired and educated by Louis Crew. He became my mentor, along with Susan and Michael and a host of others.
Together has, I think, an ambition to create a network of diocesan groups. I believe this is exactly the right ambition. Before Changing Attitude and LGCM were brought together as OBOF, both organisations had a network of regional groups – Changing Attitude’s diocesan, LGCM’s ecumenical. We both had web sites giving access to information about the local groups, contact details, profiles, meeting dates and news, plus a map of local welcoming and affirming churches specifically for LGBTQIA+ people. The diocesan network and the websites no longer exist (with the exception of Changing Attitude Birmingham).
Changing Attitude England ardently believes that working together in coalition with other organisations to ensure that we function well and communicate well with each other is a good thing. Changing Attitude contributed to an earlier coalition of groups and is fully involved with the current Coalition of 20 groups and organisations.
Forming a Diocesan network
Together proposes to create a new network of Diocesan groups. I can tell them now that this will require time, significant resources and money and particular skills. Finding people with the energy, vision and commitment to lead each group will not be easy. The challenge is huge.
Together’s goals embrace the vision pursued by Changing Attitude England since 2018 – equality in ministry and relationships. Changing Attitude England is also founded on an understanding that healthy, embodied, contemplative spirituality is also an essential ingredient of any campaign for change and transformation. We have wisdom and long experience.
Although I am cautious about the aim of the second objective “to work for a Church of England in which people of differing convictions live together in unity”, Changing Attitude England absolutely supports the goals of Together. However I am not sure TOGS, a group composed entirely of members of General Synod, will have the competence to organise the all-embracing campaign proposed by Together.
There is huge ambition here. The conversations I have had over the past weeks suggest the Church of England is in a state of crisis, a far less healthy state than General Synod and the House of Bishops and other progressive groups recognise. Radical transformation of Christian life and vision is required. Is Together up to the challenge?
Join Changing Attitude England’s Facebook group to engage with us in campaigning for the full equality of LGBTQIA+ people in the Church of England.