LGBT inclusion: What’s wrong with the Oxford bishops’ letter?

Nov 4, 2018 by

by Will Jones, Virtueonline:

The four bishops in the diocese of Oxford this week have written to all their clergy and parishes in a controversial intervention in the sexuality debate. The bishops — who comprise the diocesan bishop, Steven Croft, and the three area bishops, including the outspoken LGBT campaigner Alan Wilson, Bishop of Buckingham — explain that they do so with ‘humility and some hesitation,’ but with an awareness that the ongoing deliberations about sexuality in the wider church will not be concluded for ‘some time’.

Describing their letter as ‘some reflections on current debates and developments in the Church of England,’ the bishops call for ‘above all, an attitude of inclusion and respect for LGBTI+ people’.

From a conservative-orthodox point of view it is notable that the language in the letter is almost entirely that of the LGBT side of the debate. ‘Respect’ appears six times, ‘inclusion’ four times, the phrase ‘everyone has a place at the table’ twice, and the pain felt by some as a result of the church’s ongoing debates is acknowledged on two occasions. In full apologetic mode, the bishops state: ‘As a Church we have continually failed our sisters and brothers in Christ’. They argue that the ‘issue at stake’ is ‘how open and authentically themselves’ LGBTI+ Christians may be in their involvement in church life.

By contrast, the term ‘sin’ does not appear at all in the letter, nor does ‘holiness’ (besides a solitary Bible quotation), or ‘purity’, ‘chaste’ or ‘repentance’.

The Church’s current teaching is alluded to but never stated and certainly not endorsed or defended. Instead the letter refers to the ‘debate’ about sexuality no fewer than twelve times, and to a stance of ‘listening’ six times, with a special emphasis on listening to the experiences of LGBT people.

As so often, it is not so much in what the letter affirms that the problem lies as in what it denies, or rather leaves out or keeps ambiguous. It states, for example, that the ‘core principle’ is that ‘all people are welcomed in God’s Church’ and there is a ‘place at the table’ for all people. It does not say, but implies that this table is the Lord’s table — but if that is the case then such a universalist sentiment is clearly contrary to the teaching of scripture. The plain teaching of scripture — and of the church through the ages — is that only those who repent of their sins and profess faith in Christ are to be considered part of the church and welcomed at the Lord’s table. God’s love is wide and encompasses all, but the inclusivity of his church is limited by his call to repentance and faith. To lose sight of this crucial principle is to abandon all commitment to witness to God’s holiness and revelation in Christ.

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