by Julian Mann, Anglican Ink
The silence from conservative evangelicals in Sheffield Diocese over the appointment of the radically revisionist Rev Leah Vasey-Saunders as suffragan Bishop of Doncaster is mysterious.
Following the announcement of her appointment last week, Anglican Ink reported that she presided at a Holy Communion service under a revolving ‘Gaia’ installation when she was vicar of Lancaster Priory in Blackburn Diocese.
Under her leadership Lancaster Priory hosted the ‘Queering the Dream’ exhibition featuring artwork by the American neo-Marxist activist, Rev Dr Angela Yarber, during LGBT Pride month in June 2022.
In her announcement speech in Doncaster as Bishop-designate she signalled her intention to campaign for the revisionist stance on human sexuality: ‘I’ve always been drawn to walk alongside the people we easily overlook – ordinary, “unlikely” people. People who’ve been told they’re not the right kind of people because of race, class, sexuality, disability or age. And yet they’re exactly the people God so often chooses. I’ve seen them become leaders, ministers, preachers, prophets. Part of my call as bishop will be to keep creating space for them.’
Sheffield Diocese includes one of the largest Church of England churches in the UK, Christ Church Fulwood in south-west Sheffield.
In a diocese with an average all-age Sunday attendance of just above 10,000 out of 1.3 million people in South Yorkshire, this conservative evangelical church gets around 1000 worshippers through its doors on a usual Sunday.