by Aaron Edwards, The Good Fight
Why the Price of Compromise is Confusion, Cacophony, Anger, and Pain
When a confused Church seeks to “live in love and faith” with darkness, the conclusion can only ever be cacophony.
This week the General Synod of the Church of England voted to deny blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples, ultimately signalling the end to the “Living in Love and Faith” process, whose various meetings and reports and focus groups have cost the £1.6m and an unquantifiable volume of stress, pain, and division. But ostensibly, as the BBC reported it, the Church of England has technically “abandoned proposals for same-sex blessing ceremonies”.
Well, sort-of. In classic Anglican style, there is still a healthy dose of fudge baked into the foundations.
A Cacophony of Compromise
It’s still possible, for example (as it already was, ludicrously) for a gay couple to be “blessed” within a church meeting, with specially written “prayers of love and faith” even without being allowed their own set-apart liturgical ceremony, which might look too much like a wedding. (For more “insider” details of the implications of the Synod for the LLF process see Ian Paul’s recent article.)
The language of Synod was, of course, smothered in lashings of apology for “letting down the LGBT+ community,” etc. In reality, the Church of England still won’t speak against homosexuality the way the Bible does, and yet won’t fully “affirm” it either. Somehow, clergy are still allowed to “bless” a gay couple in church if they want to, which tells the rest of that Church, “God is ok with this,” but clearly also tells the church that God is not so “ok with this” that they’re allowed to marry. And yet despite God not being ok with them marrying, He is apparently not so against their relationship that He frowns upon their relationship at all.If it sounds confusing, it’s because it is. It’s all very confusing. It’s all very Anglican.
As a brief side (though perhaps tangentially related to weddings!), the General Synod also found time to make a public statement about the importance of the sustainable use of flowers in churches. So at least they’re showing they’re on the front line of the social issues that really matter…