Bishops say meetings with LGBTQ reps at Lambeth Palace were fruitful
by Francis Martin, Church Times:
BISHOPS held “fruitful” conversations with LGBTQ-inclusion groups last week, as the College of Bishops considers what proposals to put to the General Synod when it meets in February.
The Bishop of Warrington, the Rt Revd Bev Mason, was one of four bishops from the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) “Next Steps Group” who met campaigners for LGBTQ-inclusion in the Church on Friday.
After the meetings, which were billed as a listening exercise and took place in Lambeth Palace, Bishop Mason said: “We were very pleased for the opportunity to meet with the particular groups and grateful for their time, their insights and reflections.” Meetings with groups that campaign for a more conservative approach to sexuality are planned to take place shortly.
The other bishops who took part on Friday were the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally; the Bishop of Fulham, the Rt Revd Jonathan Baker; and the Bishop of Ripon, Dr Helen-Ann Hartley.
A spokesperson for the Bishops of London and Fulham said that they could not comment on the content of the conversations, but described the encounters as “fruitful”, an assessment with which Bishop Mason agreed.
In total, representatives from 21 organisations are meeting bishops from the Next Steps Group. A Church House statement said that “the purpose of these meetings is to offer these organisations the opportunity to share their particular hopes, concerns, and insights.”
It continued: “The learning from these meetings will be fed into the Bishops’ discernment process that begins at the end of October 2022, and will conclude in time for the meeting of General Synod in February 2023.”
Some of the meetings have already taken place, while others are scheduled for next week.
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