by Bishop Joanne Grenfell, East Anglian Times
Church is for everyone: God has made us to live in communities, and their foundation must be love.
I believe that gay people should have the same opportunities as straight people to have their faithful, loving, and stable relationships blessed in church, and to know that the Church wants to support and celebrate the God-given love that is contained within their relationship.
I value the ministry of LGBTQI+ colleagues who minister in the Church of England and do not believe that they should have to choose between marriage and ministry.
I want every LGBTQI+ person to know that God loves them, that God has made them just as they are, and that God’s heart breaks when they are treated as less than fully human or denied the possibility of having their love recognised by the Church.
General Synod, the national assembly of the Church of England, commonly referred to as the Church’s Parliament, has during its February in London voted to bring to an end the programme Living in Love and Faith.
And it is not where I had hoped the Church’s Living in Love and Faith work would end up.