Response to the Church of England House of Bishops’ Statement on Living in Love and Faith

OneBodyOneFaith expresses deep sadness, frustration and disappointment at the House of Bishops’ statement on Living in Love and Faith.

After years of consultation, testimony, theological reflection and the lived witness of LGBT+ Christians, the bishops have once again chosen delay over justice and process over people. Their statement contains words of apology and acknowledgement of harm, but it offers no meaningful change to the unequal treatment of LGBT+ people within the Church of England.

The House of Bishops admits that many LGBT+ people now feel less welcome in the Church than they did three years ago. That is not an unfortunate side effect of discernment. It is the direct result of leadership that has repeatedly raised hopes and then withdrawn them. Apologies without structural change do not heal wounds. They deepen them.

We are particularly dismayed that the bishops have once again refused to move on the two issues that matter most to LGBT+ Christians: the celebration and blessing of same-sex marriage and equal access to ordained ministry. Clergy in same sex marriages remain barred from new appointments. Candidates for ordination in same sex marriages remain excluded. Same sex couples remain unable to marry in their parish churches.

Instead, the Church of England is offered another working group, another two-year timetable, and another cycle of uncertainty. For LGBT+ people, whose lives and relationships are not theoretical, this is not pastoral care. It is institutional cruelty dressed up as caution.

The bishops speak of being a generous and welcoming Church. But generosity that is optional, and welcome that is only available to straight people, is not the Gospel. The continued refusal to recognise LGBT+ relationships and vocations as fully equal communicates a clear message: you may belong, but you will never truly be the same.

OneBodyOneFaith exists to support and advocate for all LGBT+ Christians. We hear daily from people who are exhausted, demoralised and spiritually wounded by this prolonged process. Some are leaving. Some are being forced out. Some are simply losing hope.

We call on the House of Bishops to recognise that leadership is not about managing disagreement indefinitely. It is about naming injustice and ending it. The Church of England now stands at a crossroads. It can continue to defer equality in the name of unity, or it can choose the costly, liberating truth of the Gospel. The examples of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church in Wales as well as Quakers, United Reformed and Methodists among others powerfully demonstrate that a different way is possible where there is the courage to take it.

We remain committed to a Church in which LGBT+ people are fully equal, fully loved, and fully able to live out their faith, relationships and vocations without fear or limitation. This statement from the House of Bishops does not bring that Church any closer.
 

 

Photo by Bertrand Colombo on Unsplash.