by Ian Paul, Psephizo
Dear Stephen
I read with interest your address to York Diocesan Synod on 5th July, and one word leapt out for me: ‘final’. Near the end of your address, you comment:
The Living in Love and Faith process is not yet complete. Some final proposals will be brought to the February 2026 meeting of the General Synod.
If that is the case, I am and countless others (on all sides of this debate) will be delighted. This has been a disastrous and divisive process since 2017; I wonder whether you realise how damaging it has been, and whether you will ever publicly acknowledge that. It sprang out of Justin’s spontaneous and ill-conceived phrase “radical new Christian inclusion rooted in scripture and Christian theology” which was both incoherent (how can this be new if it’s rooted in existing theology?) and immediately open to misinterpretation—almost everybody who wanted to see change forgot the second half of the phrase.
And this summer’s ‘consultation’—which has been widely rejected, since there have been no new proposals to consider—have amply illustrated that. In every diocese that has discussed it, as far as I can tell, the discussion has highlighted how divided we are, and that the LLF process, far from enable us to ‘live with difference’, has exacerbated division. I suspect the conversation in York won’t have been much different.
But there were other comments in your address that I feel I need to respond to.