Thinking Anglicans

Opinion – 25 February 2017

Lorraine Cavanagh Modern Church In our right minds

Lucy Gorman Synod Scoop Bishops, friends and radical inclusion.

Andy Bryant withthecollaroff Dethroning the mythology for a richer vision of marriage

Andrew Lightbown Theore0 Watershed moments

Theo Hobson The Spectator The Church of England should be agnostic towards homosexuality

Mark Woods Christian Today Why The Church Needs To Rethink Its Attitude To Marriage

Linda Woodhead Prospect The Church of England has reached a turning point on gay marriage

Scott Gunn Seven whole days Make great websites for cheap! (church websites, part 2)
How to kill your church by misusing the internet (church websites, part 3)

David Pocklington and Frank Cranmer Law & Religion UK Banns of marriage – their development and future

Chris Stokel-Walker BBC How smart phones and social media are changing Christianity
and in response: Archdruid Eileen The Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley Atomised Bible for a Hyperconnected World

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Susannah Clark
7 years ago

Theo Hobson feels the way towards ‘Unity in Diversity’. Truly, what other way can the square be circled, or the Church move on? What better actual plan does the Church have than to challenge all members to a ‘Unity in Diversity’ where conscience of all parties gets protected and respected. Theo touches on a key issue: there simply is NO uniform position or view on these sexuality issues. So in practice, the Church simply cannot agree, but perhaps it could agree to allow one another to live by their consciences. A kind of institutional agnosticism, if you like, since in… Read more »

Froghole
Froghole
7 years ago

Re Scott Gunn’s pieces this week and last, I would urge PCC members to read them. I am a peripatetic worshipper, and I cover quite a lot of ground. The internet is a crucial resource for enabling me to work out when and where worship is taking place. What I often do is list all of the parishes in a particular county/diocese and detail the service times. I have done this for more than 30 counties in England and Wales. So I get to see a lot of parish/benefice websites. As Mr Gunn writes, the most important information is when… Read more »

James Byron
James Byron
7 years ago

I see that the so-called liberal Theo Hobson’s yet to lose his less-than-winning attitude to gay people. From his previous column*:- “Am I having a go at gay clergy? Partly: there is an air of 
self-righteousness in this subculture, which overlaps with gay-rights
 culture in general.” If shabby compromises like the church declaring itself agnostic on whether gay relationships are sinful were ever viable (and I don’t believe they were), they certainly aren’t now. Having seen what’s possible in England, LGBT Anglicans aren’t gonna wait around and allow the likes of Hobson to set the timetable and terms for their… Read more »

Susannah Clark
7 years ago

Andrew Lightbown: “The bishops can, I think, only exercise mature episcopal leadership if they are transparent in their own diversity and recognise diversity within their own dioceses. Diversity, just like inclusivity, must be called out, named, acknowledged and, given its voice.”

Sadly it was not given its voice in the recent Bishops’ Report. But there is indeed diversity of opinion among the bishops.

Great to see the Bishop of Bradwell speaking out in support of gay and lesbian marriage, in a very moving letter where he also shares about his cancer reaching the palliative stage.

http://www.chelmsford.anglican.org/uploads/ad%20clerum%20final%20version%20%2BJB%2021_2_17(1).pdf

God bless Bishop John.

Froghole
Froghole
7 years ago

Susannah: Very many thanks for linking that piece by Bishop Wraw. I agree – it is very moving, but also an excellent tonic to some of the sturm und drang that has arisen within the Church over the last couple of weeks.

It is especially to his credit (and a tribute to his bravery) that he is determined to remain in harness at Horndon on the Hill, at least for the time being.

Pam
Pam
7 years ago

As Lorraine Cavanagh points out, the powerful are as needy as the powerless but in a different way. Power can lead people towards arrogance, it corrupts and it narrows the areas of peoples’ concern. But a mistake is made by someone in power and goodness prevails.

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