Unity and Truth – An ecclesiological approach to the Church of England’s debate about human sexuality. Part 1

Jul 1, 2024 by Jill

by Martin Davie:

Introduction.

The paper on the LLF process from the House of Bishops for this month’s meeting of the General Synod (GS 2358) has been published under the title LLF: Moving Forward as One Church.[1]

In this study, which I shall publish in four parts because of its length, I shall not undertake a detailed analysis of the contents of the House of Bishop’s document. This task has already been undertaken by Andrew Goddard in his excellent paper ‘What is now being proposed for Living in Love and Faith?’ which is available on the Psephizo website.[2]

What I shall do instead is review what is being proposed by the House of Bishops as the way forward for the Church of England in the light of what is said by Bishop Martyn Snow in the Preface to the bishops’ document, namely, ‘Unity matters – it really matters.’[3]

That the bishops as a whole agree with him is shown by the fact that these words are included in the Preface and by the fact that the title of the whole paper is LFF: Moving Forward as One Church. The word ‘one’ indicates that the bishops desire the Church of England to remain united as one church and are presenting their new proposals as a way to achieve this.

What I shall argue in this study is two things.

First, what the bishops are proposing as the way forward for the Church of England on the issue of human sexuality is not compatible with a proper theological understanding of what the unity of the Church requires.

Secondly, because this is the case, should the Church of England continue to move in the direction that the bishops are proposing conservative Christians in the Church of England will have no alternative, but to seek to establish an orthodox third province within the Church of England, precisely as a way to preserve as much unity as possible.

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