by Tim Wyatt, The Living Church
Over the last few years, conservative evangelicals in the Church of England have been united in their opposition to new services of blessing for same-sex couples. They have dug their heels in on General Synod to try to vote down the project at every stage, winning numerous victories along the way. Earlier this year, the bishops formally shuttered the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) project, leaving further liberal reforms unlikely in the near future.
Despite these victories, there are signs of fracture the movement. While united in their support for traditional teaching about sex and marriage, conservative evangelicals are divided about their place in a church where same-sex relationships can now be blessed.
C of E Bishops Are ‘False Teachers’
These internal fissures broke through to the surface in recent weeks after the Rev. Wiliam Taylor, rector of St. Helen’s, Bishopsgate in central London, posted a sermon online describing the Church of England’s bishops as “unfaithful, clear heretics.” Located in the center of London’s financial district, and with five services each Sunday, St. Helen’s is one of the Church of England’s largest and wealthiest congregations and has been a flagship of conservative evangelicalism for more than 60 years.
It was unsurprising to hear Taylor describe from the pulpit how much he and his church opposed LLF. But in the sermon, posted on YouTube on September 14 under the heading, “Responding to false teachers in the Church of England,” he went much further.
He took as his text Titus 3:10–11, in which St. Paul tells Titus to have “nothing to do with” divisive people after they have been warned twice, adding “you may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.”
Taylor argued that Paul’s words compel contemporary Christians to cut ties with bishops of his own church, explaining that for this reason, St. Helen’s had refused to even take part in churchwide consultations during the LLF process. He said this was also why St. Helen’s has refused to send potential ordinands through the standard Church of England pathways.
“How can you possibly be allowing somebody who is in fellowship with unfaithful clear heretics to select your future leaders, train your new church workers, ordain your new deacons and presbyters and install your new incumbents? It’s flat against the strategy of the apostle,” Taylor said.