The Martyrs and Missiological Damage
by Matt Kennedy, Stand Firm:
It is no secret that the Church of England is in trouble. Several years ago, I likened the contemporary English Church to the Episcopal Church in 1999. That was my first year as an M.Div student at Virginia Theological Seminary. I remember thinking at the time that while there were many powerful people promoting same-sex blessings, formal approval of such arrangements would be a long time coming. There were strong, smart orthodox leaders still exercising influence and authority and the vast majority of Episcopalians despised change and just wanted to be left alone. It would take a tectonic change in the status quo for the Episcopal Church to formally embrace same-sex sexuality I thought. But I was wrong. I had not noticed that the ground which felt solid if a bit soft at the edges, had been sapped. The once-solid platform of biblical fidelity, confessional integrity, and institutional conservatism had been steadily undermined, consistently weakened by decades of theological compromise. Just the right blow at just the right moment and the whole thing would collapse. Gene Robinson was that blow.
In England, his name is Stephen Cottrell presently Bishop of Chelmsford soon to be Archbishop of York. In an article on his upcoming elevation, the Church Times reports,
“Bishop Cottrell has also warned that the Church’s stance on same-sex relationships means that it is ‘seen as immoral by the culture in which it is set’ and has suggested that prayers of thanksgiving for these relationships — ‘perhaps a eucharist’ — should be offered. In a diocesan-synod address in 2017, he warned of the ‘missiological damage that is done when that which is held to be morally normative and desirable by much of society, and by what seems to be a significant number of Anglican Christian people in this country, is deemed morally unacceptable by the Church…And, though I am proud to confirm that all of us, whatever our views on this matter, are united in our condemnation of homophobia, we must also acknowledge that it is of little comfort to young gay or lesbian members of our Church to know that while prejudice against them is abhorred, any committed faithful sexual expression of their love for another is forbidden. . . Our ambivalence and opposition to faithful and permanent same-sex relationships can legitimise homophobia in others.”
The Christian Institute expands on the partial quote above as follows, “I am not sure the church has ever before had to face the challenge of being seen as immoral by the culture in which it is set.”
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