Archie Coates: Succeeding Nicky Gumbel, tackling LGBT issues and reaching the lost

Sep 12, 2022 by Jill

By Megan Cornwell, Premier Christianity

Interview with the Rector-Designate of Holy Trinity Brompton:

[…] A lot of Christians are wondering what direction the Church of England is going in, specifically around sexuality. We know that the Church of Scotland is allowing same-sex marriages, and the Church in Wales is blessing same-sex unions. Where do you stand on that debate?

[…]

I can give my view…but what I prefer to say is: actually, I’m not going to say my own view, because…I want people to be able to be here and find a unity in holding different views.’”

The trouble is, just because of my role, my whisper is a shout. And I think what it does is actually narrow the debate and it narrows people’s sense of unity and working with each other – and wrestling with it for themselves. So pastorally, that’s what I’ve done so far.

What I’ve noticed – and this is going to be a challenge for me – is that when I said that three or five years ago regularly to people, it was perceived as: “Oh, that’s a courageous thing, Archie, that you’re not going to be drawn on it.” (Some people call it sitting on the fence.

I don’t think it is that, but…yeah…I understand that.) What I’ve noticed now for that same answer (which is why I think it will be a challenge) is that it’s now perceived as a weakness.

You know: “Archie, you are very assured about some other things, doctrinally, why won’t you…?” It’s beginning to be regarded as bad behaviour, pastorally. You know: “Ambiguity is unkind, lack of clarity is unkind.” So that’s going to be a wrestle for me as I move to HTB.

So when you talk about ambiguity, is that an ambiguity in a sense that you don’t know what you think about this particular issue?

No. I have at the moment a clear understanding of what I think – which I think is always needing to be challenged and wrestled with. But I do. And, as you can imagine, I have talked to lots of people over the years and read lots of things and weighed and yeah…so I do. It’s not an ambiguity in that way.

Take a church like St Peter’s. You either pronounce from the platform a whole bunch of things: this is our view on this, this and this – in which case you produce a kind of unity. But I think there’s a more beautiful unity that happens here, because I know we’ve got lots of people who have lots of different views, not only on sexuality, but there’s Brexit, there’s views about the pandemic.

And what I love is a whole bunch of people who’ve decided that Jesus Christ is Lord, Jesus has risen from the dead, and we’re going to unite around [that]. And then we’re going to continue to discuss and talk about these things. It’s harder in a way, but it’s more beautiful.

Some Christians are concerned that orthodox traditional teaching around marriage is not being defended. Do you think there is an issue with being quiet about it, when there are very strong groups within the Church taking it in a certain direction?

I do. I take my responsibility as a pastor very seriously. And my job is to pastor my flock, so I think it’s really important to be at the very least putting into their hands the things that they ought to be looking up and weighing. Rather than telling them, I want to help them.

So I do think it’s really important that people speak up. And they will do, I think…in every direction. I just, as you can tell, have a hesitation about my own voice in it because there’s lots at stake.

There’s biblical truth and there’s unity, there’s mission, there’s all sorts. You’ll need to come back [to me] in six months or a year. I don’t know whether I’ll think differently, but what I may do is think differently about speaking on it. But that’s probably where I’ve got to so far.

And as I say, Megan, it has been one of the most difficult, painful things in Brighton. And I don’t think I’ve always done it very well. There’s a particular generation – in fact, my children are almost in this generation – that [for them] it’s not just same-sex marriage, it’s the whole thing around gender and identity and everything. And as a pastor, that needs to be pastored.

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