Landing zone needed for LLF
by Christopher Landau, Church Times:
‘Compassionate orthodoxy’, not a divisive settlement, is required.
FOR those of us who were non-Synod members of the short-lived Living in Love and Faith working groups that met intensively last year, it has been rather bewildering to read of their re-formation, though now populated only by General Synod members (News, 15 March).
The groups were disbanded at the very point at which enough relational capital had been established for fruitful work to proceed. But there had been unresolved questions throughout about the nature of their work, and, in particular, whether the groups should assess options for a structural settlement in response to the Prayers of Love and Faith (PLF).
Ed Shaw has proposed a “uniting settlement”, which, he argues, would “strengthen every part of the Church of England rather than split her apart” (Comment, 12 April). Given the current debate about the efficacy of the settlement concerning women’s consecration to the episcopate, I am sceptical that the Church could find a structural solution that is genuinely “uniting”. I fear that any such settlement undermines core Christian convictions about truth as being singular. Instead, I wish to offer two suggestions about ways forward.
THE first is to underline the need for a shared commitment across the breadth of the Church to a scrupulous and fearless honesty about the implications of where we actually are now, whether we like it or not.
Read here (£)
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