Press release from the Church of England
Meeting of College of Bishops March 23, 2023
24/03/2023
The College of Bishops met on Thursday to continue considering next steps for the Church of England following the recent debate at General Synod on identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage.
Last month’s Synod considered proposals from the bishops which would enable same-sex couples who have marked a significant stage of their relationship such as a civil marriage or civil partnership to come to church to give thanks, offer prayers of dedication to God and to receive God’s blessing. Synod members also met in small groups to consider and comment on a set of draft texts for these prayers known as Prayers of Love and Faith, and to offer their views on proposed pastoral guidance.
At Thursday’s meeting, in London, bishops began reviewing those comments and considered how to approach the task of refining the Prayers of Love and Faith and preparing the new pastoral guidance.
They agreed to setting up three working groups and a steering group to oversee and coordinate their work, each to be made up of bishops assisted by a group of advisers drawn from across the Church, both lay and ordained.
The working groups will focus on:
It is anticipated that the steering group will be chaired by the Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, and will include the chairs of the three working groups.
The final membership of the working groups will be confirmed and published in due course.
“Pastoral Reassurance – to examine what will be required to ensure freedom of conscience for clergy.” Well that’s a bit of a joke. What that rubric really means is freedom of conscience for conservative clergy, if they refuse to do the prayers of blessing.. But they have studiously avoided any mention at Synod or here of ‘freedom of conscience’ for gay-affirming clergy and church communities to marry gay couples and not discriminate against them. If you look at the Scottish examples, that’s the path they took: allowing ‘plural consciences’ which both allowed and protected the consciences of opposing groups. At… Read more »
I share your concerns Susannah. However, the Press Release says what it says and not what may be read between the lines. Might ‘the bishops’ be encouraged to include a word like ‘all’ between ‘freedom of conscience’ and ‘clergy’? Much may hinge on membership of the working groups and their ‘advice’ or ‘guidance’. Some may have noticed the views of the former Bishop of Oxford, Lord Harries of Pentregarth on Radio 4’s Thought for the day and his subsequent interview in the Today programme.
At our Diocesan Synod (Oxford) I asked the bishops to work to ensure that those who chose to use the published prayers would be able to do so joyfully without fear and that those who chose not to would be able to do so faithfully without fear. There are issues on a number of fronts, not least various suggestions that pastoral proposals from the Bishops will face robust legal challenge and the prospect that any one of our churches might become the focus of a nationally significant test case. There is already a legal opinion challenging the legal advice given… Read more »
The thing is, Mark, ‘freedom of conscience to conduct a wedding’ IS a live issue, because for gay and lesbian couples it impacts them NOW, not to mention the more general and deep harm the discrimination does. Regardless of the opposition the bishops faced from a vocal minority who are holding the rest of the Church to ransom, they could have acted on principle if they chose to, by declaring that in their view devoted gay sex was not a sin, and proposing a ‘plural conscience’ outcome like Scotland’s as their preferred direction of travel. Instead they chose to impose… Read more »
Does the Church of England really need to be so dominated by management speak and bureaucracy ? We seem to have almost reached the point where an MBA will be a requirement to be a bishop. The issues are well known, have been rehearsed over and over again and are actually pretty simple. I cannot see why 3 working groups and a host of advisors are necessary at all. This whole exercise seems a perfect example why the Church is in decline and has lost sight of its real purpose. Any Bishop who enjoys Office Politics so much might be… Read more »
“I cannot see why 3 working groups and a host of advisors are necessary at all.”
So that no individual can be blamed for anything?
‘I cannot see why 3 working groups and a host of advisors are necessary at all’. Well I am presently charged with developing some resources and policies for a local organisation containing a sensitive range of viewpoints and concerns. To enable this with any informed credibility I have gathered voices from across the organisation to share the task. So this way of proceeding makes complete sense to me.
Since General Synod endorsed the decision of the College and House of Bishops not to propose any change to the doctrine of marriage, and their intention that the final version of the Prayers of Love and Faith should not be contrary to or indicative of a departure from the doctrine of the Church of England, there is very little for the working groups to do.
Well completely new pastoral guidance needs writing for one. Plenty of arm wrestling ahead there. Pastoral reassurance needs clarifying for another.
If the doctrine of marriage isn’t changing then the new pastoral guidance can’t be much different from Issues in Human Sexuality. And pastoral reassurance may not be needed at all if the prayers are amended to align with the doctrine of marriage.
The information gathering was done through the LLF process.
I suppose a timetable would have been too much to ask for. Will any of this work be ready for Synod in July?
Which year Judith?
Good question, Colin!
How can bishops be blessing and affirming something they feel to be wrong? Far more honest for the conservatives to refuse and the liberals to agree to marry.
I agree.
I haven’t heard of a single person who has suggested that conservative clergy should be forced to be involved in single sex marriage.
In the same way nobody suggests that conservative evangelicals should celebrate the Mass in their churches. But perhaps we should remind ourselves that the theology of the Eucharist once caused painful divisions, riots and court cases. But now it seems unremarkable that we have High Mass in one church and the Lord’s Supper in another. I hope we can reach the point where we can have equal marriage in some parishes and not in others.
A logical conclusion. However there are those who would argue that to allow conservatives to refuse would be to allow them the to continue their homophobic practice, to continue to harm people through their homophobic theology. This, it would be argued, should not be allowed to happen.
The solution to this and allied problems is for clergy to opt either to marry all couples or to opt out of the marriage role altogether. That way everyone’s conscience is protected but no couple suffers discrimination. Win win.
So are you saying that if, as a minister, you will not, on theological grounds, marry a same-sex couple, you should opt out of the marriage role?
It would be hard (actually impossible) to prevent clergy from marrying opposite-gendered couples who won’t marry those of the same gender. Better to remove the duty on all clergy to act as registrars altogether, and for all couples to obtain a civil marriage before any religious rite they might wish.
Changes to registration practice already means that Clergy no longer act as registrars. Wherever couples marry they now sign a ‘schedule’ which is returned to the Registrar, who then issues the marriage certificate.
Some may recall the so-called by some the ‘gay cake case’:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_v_Ashers_Baking_Company_Ltd_and_others
Not sure what that might mean regarding ‘gay marriage’ though I note the reference to the ECHR.
BTW- who sought the ‘ban’ on CofE gay marriage in legislation; and similarly the exception of the CofE regarding equality, that enables women to still be discriminated against regarding clergy positions.
I’ve seen discussion on Twitter about a Manchester Anglican priest preaching that gays go to hell. This is after the GS debate and the apology about homophobia in the Church by the bishops.
Can clergy of the C of E preach that without being told off?
If so how on earth can Bishops apologise then allow that to be preached?
Some pastoral guidance should clearly be rules.
I have heard that at a recent meeting of the London Diocesan Synod a lay member publicly informed a senior member of the diocese that they would go to hell, as a result of a speech made at that event.
Their archdeacon can bring a complaint under the CDM for ‘behaviour unbecoming’ against the hellfire preacher. I wouldn’t hold your breath though … bishops are good at confetti apologies not so good at holding ConEvos with hateful views to account.