The audio recording of the final session on Wednesday dealing with the Pilling report is now available here.
The official report of the session says:
HUMAN SEXUALITY: REPORT FROM THE HOUSE OF BISHOPS’ WORKING GROUP (GS 1929) AND NEXT STEPS
Sir Joseph Pilling made a presentation to the Synod on the report from the House of Bishops’ Working Group (GS 1929).
The Bishop of Sheffield, Steven Croft, then spoke to the Synod about the process on the basis of the report.
Synod then asked questions to the process, which were answered by Bishop Steven Croft and Sir Joseph Pilling.
Earlier, on Monday, a number of other Questions relating to the report were answered by Bishop Steven Croft.
Answers given will be transcribed from the Monday afternoon audio recording soon.
A very heartening and sensitive recorded session of the G.S. on Wednesday afternoon! Sir Joseph Pilling was appropriately apologetic about his own apparent lack of expertise on the question of the dynamics involved, but was to be congratulated for having chaired a significant series of Commission meetings that, with its recommendation for facilitated conversation, both nationally and in the dioceses, will undoubtedly enhance the prospect of a more caring attitude in the C. of E. towards LGBT people. The Bishop OF Sheffield and Sir Joseph answered questions quite skilfully, with assurances that LGBT couples in monogamous relationships will be invited… Read more »
The Bishop of Sheffield is a thoroughly good egg and the best preacher I have ever heard. He isn’t liberal but he is kind and good – and that often makes for better theology than anything else. He certainly has no personal difficulties with gay people, as he constantly showed when he was a member of our church in Durham.
John, We all know conservative people who have “no personal difficulties with gay people”. That isn’t the problem, and referencing it is no get out, either. The problem is official church teaching and policy – which discriminates against LGBT people, lay and clergy, their lives and loves, and, by the way it structures the debate, maintains a church that operates a kind of apartheid that, in the views it propounds, does active harm to LGBT people. Good egg bishops are the ones who recognise this and are working to change it. They are rare as hen’s teeth. More common are… Read more »
‘He certainly has no personal difficulties with gay people’
How jolly decent of him!
It was a good debate; respectful and constructive. Three points stood out for me. First, the bishop saying they “…acknowledge the need for repentance for homophobic attitudes we have sometimes failed to rebuke. The College recognises that the concept of homophobia is contested and the Pilling Report was right to say that no-one should be accused of it simply for articulating traditional Christian teaching. But as a church we do ourselves and others no good if we are heard as being homophobic and, as the College of Bishops’ statement said, we do need to stand firmly against homophobia wherever and… Read more »
Jeremy Pemberton is right when he suggests that, without the determination to alter the teaching of the Church on the subject of homosexuality, should there be sufficient evidence of the need for change during the course of the proposed ‘facilitated discussions’; there may be no point in any further discussion. To pre-empt any possibility of changing the extant homophobic culture of Church dogma will render any further discussion to be utterly useless, and discouraging of any further attempt by the Church to appear relevant to the LGBT community it seeks to minister to in the future. The time has come… Read more »
Very well said, Jeremy Pemberton, I agree with every word.
In my book, the “cautious moderates” are the worst of the lot, because, unlike the conservatives, they know better.
I put a post on another thread, before this audio recording was available, to which so far only Fr Ron has responded. I thought I may have misheard Dr Giddings during the live broadcast on Weds, but I have just confirmed in this recording that he did say exactly what I thought, so I am tempted to try again. During the questions after the presentation of the Pilling report, Philip Giddings asked if the facilitated conversations would include ‘those who had experienced same-sex attraction but had later felt themselves to have been liberated from it’. His use of the word… Read more »