Bishop calls for same sex marriage

Nov 8, 2022 by

The news of Bishop Steven Croft’s booklet setting out his reasons for the Church of England to fully embrace the Western secular understandings of sex and marriage came in a report in the Church Times on November 3rd, following the College of Bishops’ meeting on the way forward following Living in Love and Faith:
Bishop of Oxford calls for an end to ban on same-sex marriage in Church of England, by Paul Handley, Church Times

Analysis and comment, most recent at the top:

The Bishop of Oxford’s surprising case for same-sex marriage is flawed, by Ian Paul, Premier Christianity:
Croft says “We now have a profound dislocation between the Church of England…and the society we are called to serve…We are seem to inhabit a different moral universe.” Most Christians would think that this was core to being a disciple of Jesus, not a problem that inhibits our witness.

What theological issues are at stake in our doctrine of marriage?
From Psephizo: Joshua Penduck writes this open letter to Steven Croft in response to his argument for change in the Church’s doctrine of marriage.

Bishop of Oxford’s views on same-sex marriage put popular opinion above the Bible, by Peter Lynas, Premier Christianity:
“Bishop Croft’s booklet is … the latest in a series of calls that say institutions like the Church should exist to help people discover who they are and be their best selves, not shape or form people.”

Honest questions for Church of England bishops and other leaders, by David Baker, Christian Today:
Some questions for the Bishop of Oxford, for the Church of England Evangelical Council, and for “evangelical and other orthodox bishops” who to date have remained silent.

Truth, Love & Making People Sad, by Matthew Hosier, Think Theology:
“the decisions of the church should not be made in response to their emotional impact: ‘truth’ is a bigger, and harder-edged, category than what I, the bishop, or anyone else feels about things.”

Why the bishops have an option, by Martin Davie:
“Those who want the Church of England to change its position are seeking to create a public narrative in which change is seen as inevitable, and both the briefings and the Bishop of Oxford’s paper are part of this attempt…[but] there is nothing to stop the bishops choosing to restate the current position.”

Same-sex marriage: should the Church of England affirm culture, or confront it?
by Archbishop Cranmer:
What integrity of witness can the Church of England have when one integrity cannot recognise the other?…Mutually exclusive integrities constitute no integrity at all.

Calvin Robinson on Marriage
The Free Church of England minister and current affairs presenter offers a robust defence of marriage as understood for 2000 years. Watch on GB News.

Calvin’s blog here:
Gay Marriage is not Marriage: For the Bishop of Oxford and his contemporaries to be promoting sin is scandalous.

More will join the call for same-sex weddings, declares bishop, by Kaya Burgess, The Times: The Bishop of Oxford has said he expects more colleagues to publicly back his call for the church to start conducting same-sex weddings, with five bishops already voicing their support.

Bishops endorsing same-sex marriage should be ‘removed from ministry’, from Christian Today:
Christian Concern CEO Andrea Williams is calling on the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to defend the Church of England’s core teaching on marriage and sexuality after the Bishop of Oxford’s essay in support of a change in position.

Read Andrea’s response in her own words: Bishops openly repudiate the teaching of the Church of England, from Christian Concern

What is the Bishop of Oxford thinking? by Ian Paul, Psephizo:
It feels as if the good ship Church of England is running on one engine, listing to port, holed at or below the waterline—and Captain Croft wants to grab the helm and steer her onto the rocks.

Together in Love and Faith? Should the Church bless same -sex partnerships? A Response to the Bishop of Oxford, by Vaughan Roberts, Latimer Trust booklet:
Although I have shown my strong disagreement with much in Bishop Steven’s essay, I am nonetheless hopeful that it might help somehow to move us forward in our discussions within the Church of England.

Oh, That Crafty Bishop Croft of Oxford, by Rollin Grams, Bible and Mission:
Despite Croft’s clever list of bad fruits of those who do abide by God’s commandments, the fact is that he is, by any obvious reading of the text, exactly the sort of false prophet that calls Jesus ‘Lord’—as we might imagine he does as a bishop—but whom Christ excludes from the Kingdom.

 

Related Posts

Tags

Share This