Press release from Church House Westminster: Group on human sexuality invites submissions.
23 February 2012
The group chaired by Sir Joseph Pilling to advise the House of Bishops on the Church of England’s approach to human sexuality has invited submissions. Written submissions can be sent, to arrive by 31 May, to: Sexuality Working Group, c/o Central Secretariat, Church House, Gt Smith Street, London SW1P 3AZ or sexualityworkinggroup@churchofengland.org. The group will also invite oral evidence at a later stage.
The House of Bishops announced on 1 July, 2011, that it intended to draw together material from the listening process undertaken within the Church of England over recent years in the light of the 1998 Lambeth Conference resolution. It also committed itself to offering proposals on how the continuing discussion within the Church of England about these matters might best be shaped in the light of the listening process. The task of Sir Joseph’s group, announced last month, is to help the House discharge its commitment to produce a consultation document.
The full text of the 1 July statement can be found at:
http://www.churchofengland.org/media/1289380/gsmisc997.pdf.The press release announcing the working group can be found at:
http://www.churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2012/01/group-to-advise-house-of-bishops-on-human-sexuality-announced.aspx”>http://www.churchofengland.org/media/1289380/gsmisc997.pdf.The press release announcing the working group can be found at:
http://www.churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2012/01/group-to-advise-house-of-bishops-on-human-sexuality-announced.aspx.
Earlier in the month some Questions were asked at General Synod about the terms of reference for this group. See General Synod Questions on Sexuality Reviews.
Also at that General Synod, the LGB&T Anglican Coalition undertook an Act of Witness, see the press release here (PDF) and pictures here.
Perhaps, the terms of reference is amply embedded the St.Andrew’s Day Statement to which Lambeth 1.10 refers: ‘Many competing interpretations of the phenomena can be found in contemporary discussion, none of them with an unchallengeable basis in scientific data. The church has no need to espouse any one theory, but may learn from many. To every theory, however, it must put the question whether it is adequate to the understanding of human nature and its redemption that the Gospel proclaims. Theories which fail this test can only imprison the imagination by foreclosing the recognition of emotional variety and development. To… Read more »
I have just sent off my own submission to this Commission. I do hope that everyone on this site will make their own submissions – either based on their own experiences of homophobia in the Church, or of their connection with monogamous, faithful partnered relationships of LGBTQ people they know. It is time the Church of England came out of the closet and affirmed the reality of the situation; that there are Christian people – even clergy – in the community who live happily with their homosexual orientation, believing that God has gifted them with an acute sense of the… Read more »
I hope all our Thinking Anglicans have sent in something to the commission. I have!