Martyn Snow, the Bishop of Leicester, has stepped from his role as Lead Bishop for Living in Love and Faith. He published the following statement on his Facebook page earlier this afternoon.
With a very heavy heart, I have decided to step down from my role as Lead Bishop for Living in Love and Faith. I am hugely grateful to the staff team that I have worked with over the last 18 months and similarly the Working Group members who have given hours of their time to seek an agreed way forward in the Church of England on matters of sexuality, relationships, and marriage. I hope it may yet be possible to reach such an agreement, but I don’t think that can happen under my leadership. I will not be making any further comments.
The logic of the incommensurabilty of the LLF proposals is working itself out – at personal cost – in the lives of those who have given themselves to trying to progress this doomed project. LLF/PLF tries to say that the church can simultaneously proclaim ‘Same sex sexual relationships can be good, holy and blessed by God’ AND ‘Same sex sexual relationships are shameful, sinful, and accursed of God.’ It’s the internalisation of contradiction in the body of Christ. A Kingdom divided against itself… It’s time to stop limping on with 2 opinions. Affirm the traditional teaching, and ask the progressives… Read more »
Or, split as most major denominations have on this issue.
Which denominations did you have in mind here? In the UK those denominations that affirm equal marriage have managed to do so by accepting a diversity of views and I’m not aware of any that have experienced a substantial split.
Mostly American examples as they are the best examples of how churches which have deep divisions on same-sex blessings tend to deal with this issue. In America, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Anglicans and Methodists are broadly split across these lines because these contradictory positions aren’t easily reconciled. The CofE isn’t similar to the Methodists or the URC in the UK as the number of theological conservatives is much greater. It’salso much greater than the TEC or the Anglican Church of Canada and those have seen significant exits over this. The reality is that the CofE has about 45% in opposition to this… Read more »
So not, in fact, “most major denominations”, just those where homophobes command enough support to force a split.
Name calling aside the reality is a substantial portion of the CofE disagree with LLF and some see blessing same sex relationships as a first order salvation issue. That isn’t true of the Church of Scotland, the Scottish Episcopal Church or the URC even though churches have left from these. I’m not sure of the URC but it is definitely true of the other two. The reality is though that it is unsurprising to say that there wasn’t a split down the middle in churches that have very safe liberal majority. In all of the examples I’ve seen where it’s… Read more »
Calling a spade a spade is not “name calling”. If you don’t like being called homophobic then the solution is to stop doing homophobic things and advocating for homophobic ideas. The “first order salvation issue” rhetoric is simply an excuse. There is no coherent theological framework that can determine homophobia to be an inescapable requirement for salvation but can also finesse teaching on divorce to be a second order issue that doesn’t require separation. It’s simply a matter of numbers – if conservatives thought they could muster a large enough faction on divorce, or indeed on the ordination of women,… Read more »
According to its website the number of congregations in the ACNA Diocese of Canada is 72, 27 of which are in southern Ontario and 23 of which are in the lower mainland of BC (in other words, two thirds of the ACNA congregations are highly concentrated in two areas of the country). By contrast, the Anglican Church of Canada has over 2000 congregations across the country. I live in the Diocese of Edmonton which has about 45 congregations. One parish in our diocese split over this issue and an ACNA parish was formed as a result. Every exit is significant,… Read more »
But those who lead the 72 are incredibly noisy and that is what makes it look like a great parting of ways rather than a handful of congregations leaving.
I don’t see how churches that split are the ‘best example’ of dealign with controversial issues.
I am really sad about this. I believe Bishop Martyn has acted with integrity. It seems it is all too much.
I am torn in more than one direction here, but I think that sufficient numbers regard LLF as a doctrinal issue that it is correct to invoke canon B2 and require a 2/3rds majority in each house of Synod. I write as someone very strongly committed to working for equality.
2/3 majorities and canon B2 are not about doctrine. They are to do with authorizing liturgical material that is alternative to a service that already exists in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Services which are not alternative to the BCP may be used at the discretion of the minister (Canon B 5.2). Commendation by the House of Bishops reassures the minister that they are most unlikely to be disciplined.
But, as you know, Canon B 5.3 stipulates that “All variations in forms of service and all forms of service used under this Canon shall be reverent and seemly and shall be neither contrary to, nor indicative of any departure from, the doctrine of the Church of England in any essential matter.” The Hous eof Bishops needs to understand that it cannot commend material that does not fulfil this requirement. This is about doctrine.
Yes indeed. But commendation by the HoB carries the implication that they believe that it does so conform.
A bunch of revisionist bishops sticking their fingers in their ears and endlessly repeating “We’re not changing doctrine” does not make it so.
Really rather insulting, Pete. Have you really not met ‘revisionists’ bishops who are as committed to biblical faithfulness as you? Call us what you like but those of us who are inclusive are not sticking things anywhere. We simply disagree with you over what we think the texts are saying.
Alternatively a bunch of homophobes sticking their fingers in their ears and insisting that anything they don’t like is a change of doctrine doesn’t make it so.
I wish the CofE was changing its doctrine. I hope and pray that the Holy Spirit will lead it there in due time, to recognising and blessing Holy Matrimony regardless of the sex or gender of the couples. But PLF isn’t that. It’s a “miserable little compromise”, a stone given in place of bread.
Not a very appropriate way to phrase it, if I may say so. And I presume you do not object to the current prayers which do not refer to marriage.There is also a tradition of doctrine developing and that might be helpful in this area enabling us to say ‘this is the doctrine now, but there is space for it to develop in future generations.’ Otherwise we get to the position where we say that however biblical studies develops or research in other disciples sheds new light on human sexuality and gender or the variety of cultural factors continue to… Read more »
If only it were about doctrine, and the debate that we ought to be having which is equal marriage. The Prayers of Love and Faith are explicitly not a marriage service, yet many on the conservative side misunderstand this and believe that it is about marriage. So, to be absolutely clear, the PLF are a service giving thanks for the good things in the lives of two people in a relationship. Unless your position is that it is Anglican doctrine that there can be nothing whatsoever that is good in the relationship of two people in the same sex, the… Read more »
More smoke and mirrors. The Alliance raised the issue of B2 back in July 2023. Unfortunately the PLF are not clear, that’s the point. Nothing is explicit, but everything is implied.
I agree with you. Thank you. In a recent letter in the Church Times the conservative Andrew Cornes was willing to admit that in the ancient world ‘the large majority of same sex relationships were loving, generous, tender and committed’ and claimed St Paul knew of them (where his evidence is for this I am not sure). But he nevertheless insists that these relationships are ‘porneia’ – a word translated as ‘unchaste, ‘sexually immortal’ and ‘fornicators’. This means the very relationships Cornes commends in terms I aspire to in my own marriage are to be listed with ‘idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, thieves… Read more »
That’s begging the question. It seems only recently that some people have decided that marriage is a doctrine, let alone an ‘essential doctrine’.
And if not an essential doctrine, why shouldn’t the House of Bishops recommend the forms of service?
Have you read the canon recently?
I had the text in front of me when I wrote my earlier comment.
Anyone reading this thread would say. We have those who believe people holding to what is a traditional understanding of marriage are homophobes who must leave. Those who hold that traditional marriage is the present position of the CofE and must be maintained. Those who are saddened that one Bishop appears to have looked at this situation and said, ‘I have had enough.’ Why would said person reading the thread not conclude. This is unworkable. “Incommensurability is working itself out,” as Pax writes. And has been for some time now. There is simply no way forward short of some formal… Read more »