It is Pride Month.  This is usually a time when the LGBTQIA community can celebrate and find strength, visibility and unity.  Over the years many commercial companies have chosen to align themselves with Pride Month and proclaim themselves as allies.  These companies have been visible on social media and at Pride events.  It has been a way to showcase their commitment to diversity and inclusion. But times are changing.  There is an increasing backlash.  In some cases, like Target in the US, it has been about customers objecting to the sale of Pride merchandise in ..read more

Over the weekend I went to a Christingle service.  Quite a traditional thing to do at this time of year.  But I went to a different church from those I normally frequent.  I was there to see what they were doing about warm spaces, food pantry etc. So, we got to the part of the service when we actually made the Christingle.  Like so many I have made in the past I listened to the explanation about the orange as the world and wrapping the world in love and the four cocktail sticks and sweets etc.  Well, I say ‘listened’, but when you have heard it so many times I honestly ..read more

With the college of bishops having held their first LLF meeting and Bishop Stephen Croft publishing his views on the future last week, there is a sense that the Living in Love and Faith process is finally seeing the light at the end of an extremely long tunnel.  There are hopes that by the end of next February’s General Synod that the decisions will be made and we just have to allow time to implement them.  That is the best-case scenario.  The worst-case scenario could be that whatever the bishops propose gets rejected by General Synod and we are back at square one, except that ..read more

A row has broken out because some of the GAFCON primates and some of the GFSA Steering Committee are unhappy at the appointment of David Monteith as the next dean of Canterbury.  The reason these groups are unhappy is because David is in a civil partnership. I am writing this as a member of the Changing Attitude England steering committee, and also as a member of David’s congregation at Leicester Cathedral, where he has been dean since 2013 and was canon chancellor before that. What these GAFCON / GFSA people are missing is the David is the best person for the job.  He is a man of Go ..read more

Many of those who lead the Church of England and who fill our pews every Sunday morning are the generation who were at school in the 60s, 70s and 80s.  What were they reading?  Who were the romantic role models that they had?  Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, with Elizabeth Bennett simpering after Mr Darcy?  Or perhaps the Brontës?  Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester or a smouldering Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights? Or even the ultimate tragedy of star crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet? Well generation Z in our schools now certainly aren’t reading those for their romantic role ..read more

The Church of England recently held its General Synod.  As part of this, people get to ask questions.  Question Time can actually be the most entertaining part of the whole event.  One of the questions submitted in advance was: What is the Church of England’s definition of a woman? The ‘official’ answer was There is no official definition, which reflects the fact that until fairly recently definitions of this kind were thought to be self-evident, as reflected in the marriage liturgy. The LLF project however has begun to explore the complexities associated with gender identity an ..read more

Money, sex and power are a heady combination and have caused untold problems for the church since the very beginning.  The church has been trying to be in control ever since. Then governments tried to get involved.  You can never have too much bureaucracy when there is temptation involved, as St Augustine might have said if he were alive today.  Somehow these three elements of money, sex and power have all coalesced around marriage, leading to the centuries old fight over which institution controls marriage. Until around the 12th century marriage was a very loose arrangement, th ..read more

We all know what school playgrounds are like and we know that fights can happen.  Often they stop when an authority figure appears, but sometimes both parties are so invested in the fight that they just carry on the scrap anyway. I have broken up many fights in my time.  Once you have imposed a ‘ceasefire’, what you do next is really important.  If you just tell both parties that they simply have to behave better and even do the ‘shake hands and be friends’ trope then you solve almost nothing.  That is a playground lesson. What you should do in breaking up playground fights ..read more

Some people support same-sex marriage, but do so on the basis of ‘equality’ or ‘justice’. Many supporters are not aware of the large amount of scholarship in support of same sex marriage. There is a lot of serious theology and Biblical material that we can engage with. It is important that supporters are able to argue from the Bible and theology if we are to convince sceptics. The place to start is with Alan Wilson’s book More Perfect Union? Alan Wilson is the bishop of Buckingham. This book is written to introduce readers to the Biblical material and to examine the arguments in favour of sam ..read more

The Church of England is not a safe place to be.  Was it ever really? A new report has shown that only a third of LGBT+ people feel safe in their local church.  The report is based on a survey done by the Ozanne  Foundation and it can be accessed at SAFEGUARDING LGBT+ CHRISTIANS SURVEY 2021 – Ozanne Foundation It makes for stark reading. It is clear that churches need to be much more proactive in helping LGBT+ Christians feel safe in their churches.  This means that church leaders must be much more transparent about where they and their churches stand on LGBT+ issues.  ..read more