Synod members write to Bishops on sexuality issue

Aug 11, 2016 by

MEMBERS of the General Synod have written an open letter to the College and House of Bishops, urging them ‘not to consider any proposals that fly in the face of the historic understanding of the church’ on human sexuality.

The letter, which is signed by both lay and clergy members of the Synod, says that following the Shared Conversations, a ‘much more biblical study is needed’ before Synod can make informed decisions about human anthropology and sexuality.

The letter, which is published in The Church of England Newspaper today, also welcomes initiatives to help local churches be ‘welcoming to all, irrespective of the pattern of sexual attraction’; in a way that is ‘affirming and consistent with Scripture’.

“As you prepare to meet in the College and House of Bishops, we urge you not to consider any proposals that fly in the face of the historic understanding of the church as expressed in ‘Issues in Human Sexuality’ (1991) and Lambeth Resolution 1.10. To do so – however loud the apparent voice for change – could set the Church of England adrift from her apostolic inheritance,” the letter states.

One of the signatories, the Rev Alistair McHaffie of Blackburn diocese, told us that he signed the letter because the Church has “abandoned the scriptural basis for making decisions over human sexuality in favour of the way the culture is thinking.

“I think as Christians, we need to be governed by scripture rather than culture and I fear that the debate is going along the lines of following culture rather than scripture,” he said.

A Synod member who wishes to remain unnamed said: “This letter shows the complete blindness there appears to be amongst some to see the absurdity of their position. The Church cannot hope to give a welcome that has any truth, love or integrity if it does not fully embrace LGBTI Christians as equal members of the Body of Christ.

“To threaten fracture and state that ‘no proposals be considered’ is highly manipulative and unChristian. Surely our faith commands us to listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying and to remain open to revelation?

“To seek to close down a discussion before it even starts shows the rigidity of a fundamentalist approach to religion, which is based on fear rather than faith. God is big enough, his arms wide enough and His truth strong enough to withstand any debate”.

Another signatory, lay member Prudence Dailey of Oxford diocese, commented: “There’s a lot of pressure within the Church from various quarters to change the Church’s formal teaching doctrine in relation to human sexuality and particularly in respect of same sex relationships.

“I felt that it was important for the House of Bishops, who will have to consider this question in some form or another, were aware that there was also strength of feeling in the other direction, namely, that the Church should not be abandoning its traditional teaching in relation to this,” she told us.

“The proponents of change talk about the fact that there’s a lot of pressure building up, that ‘something has to change’, but I think it is important for the House of Bishops to realise that there would also be a tremendous cost to change. If the Church changes its teaching on this issue that would also have consequences in making a lot of people feel that they had been cut adrift.

“We’ve been peculiar in the way we’ve put the cart before the horse as a Church, in that all our concentration has been around issues of same-sex relationships and we haven’t had a discussion about sexuality more generally, and it’s a very peculiar thing to do.

“Same-sex relationships are not the majority of human sexuality and there are other issues around the way society regards sexuality which are very out of kilter with the way the church understands it.”

She claimed that the Church had not begun to scratch the surface, in relation to discussing some of the issues that would be necessary to look at in order to contemplate any kind of change in doctrine.

“What scripture has to say is clearly at the heart of things and is clearly a crucial question, but it is not the only direction from which this should be approached.

“We need to be talking about Christian anthropology, natural law, which have not really featured in the discussion at all. We almost seem to have lost sight of those concepts and so we don’t really have the context there in which to be considering making any kind of radical steps at this stage,” she said.

The Open Letter and signatories can be found here.

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