At Together for the Church of England Charlie Baczyk-Bell has written
B2 or not B2: that isn’t the question
At Psephizo Andrew Goddard has written
Why has the LLF process reached the end of the line?
The latter article is a summary: the full version (21 pages) is available here.
“Why has the LLF process reached the end of the line?” It hasn’t. It is the largest process of engagement the Church of England has ever embarked on, and it has birthed new groups and new ideas that have not gone away.. Rather, they are part of a journey that continues, to find ways we can love one another, live with one another, accommodate one another, and protect decent people’s consciences even when they differ. We need to seek unity in Christ, which is not the same as uniformity. Not if ‘uniformity’ means dominating the consciences and beliefs of half… Read more »
Some people (mainly con evos) are trying to assert that LLF is dead in the water. Primarily to convince the rest of the church that this is reality. Sleight of (under)hand.
It seems a little submerged
The main new element appears to be para 17 which may have increased caution about commending PLF for bespoke services but also weakens the existing commendation for PLF in regular services: …where a form of service is commended only by a majority of the House of the Bishops, with significant dissent, the position is less clear. Commendation of forms of service has conventionally been by the unanimous decision (or at least a decision from which no bishop actively dissented) of the House of Bishops. Where – as was the case with the PLF Resources – a significant number of bishops dissent, it… Read more »
Could you give me the very most basic level of respect and use my actual name?
I looked (without much hope, I have to confess) for one word in Andrew Goddard’s massive screed to indicate that he had any sense of sympathy or compassion for the people who are being excluded because of the legal and theological opinions he is expounding so eruditely.
I couldn’t find one.
From today’s gospel in the daily office lectionary of the Anglican Church of Canada, beautifully translated in the REB:
‘When (Jesus) came ashore and saw a large crowd, his heart went out to them…’ (Matthew 14.14)
Thanks Tim. I have to agree with you. When doctrine does not land somewhere – taking flesh in real lives and communities, it becomes an ideology and is experienced as coercive of those ives. And so it has become.
What I find most offensive (and I don’t mean Andrew here) is the conservative claims to have suffered during this process, from the Shared Conversations onwards. It is tone deaf.
Jesus reacted that way to a crowd of ordinary people but to make the point needed we would need to consider how he reacted to unrepentant sinners, on whom his Woes were sometimes laid. That’s how the other side in this matter view sexually active gays
Amid all these masses of words, much of which seems like prevarication, I hope that some clergy will just go ahead and use these prayers and creative variations on them, particularly if they know that their Bishop is sympathetic. Public opinion will defend them
This pretence that all we call LLF is over. Like the end of the war? As if all those this process was always for and about will now simply cease to exist – by sleight of legal advice. It really is a rather desperate fantasy. Offensive. And pastorally bankrupt
Thanks, David. It seems to me that the thinly disguised desire of conservative evangelicals for LGBTQIA+ people ‘simply to cease to exist’ is why one will look in vain for pastoral sympathy in their writings. For some time now, I have been concerned that what they are engaged in – albeit subconsciously – is a form of modern-day scapegoating. It is a psychological process that would at least account for the virulence with which they have been attacking LGBTQIA+ people since the HoBs’ original apology and commendation of the PLF in 2023. What neither they nor the HoB seem to… Read more »
To those who are variously depressed or elated over the rumours of LLF’s death, ask yourselves this. Can things can go back to the status quo ante?
LLF is not ‘over’ in the sense that the issues it seeks to grapple with will go away. The debate will continue. It’s over, though, in the sense that people are finally accepting that nothing that is currently on the table is capable of succeeding in the terms in which it has been proposed. There isn’t a sufficient ‘sensus fidelium’ among the bishops, or in Synod as a whole, or across the wider Church of England that this is what God is calling us to do, in such a way, at such a time. I personally think it would unwise… Read more »
Of course LLF hasn’t, by episcopal fiat, reached the end of the line, and of course, bishops, can’t demand that parishes and priests refrain from ‘stand alone’ services. How can they? And, what are they actually going to do when parishes and priests just get on with them? Again, probably nothing. The LLF process has totally and utterly undermined the practice of episcopacy, and if the bishops try to police parochial practice in relation to services of blessing it will continue to do so. The so called liberals just need to get on with it, and the so called conservatives… Read more »