Some further items to record:
Eleven members of the LLF Working Groups have written to criticise GS 2358: LLF: from Leicester to York
CEEC has issued this invitation to a “Commissioning of Overseers” service.
Neil Patterson writes in the Church Times: Called to live together, not apart
By my reckoning, this is just shy of 1/3 of the participants of the leicester weekend (11 out of the 34 listed on https://www.churchofengland.org/media/press-releases/membership-llf-groups-announced )
It will probably only add to the confusion, I’ve already seen comments from 2 other people who were there in Leicester, saying in essence that what they “agreed” would be going to the College and then House of Bishops for review, but what is going to Synod is basically what they expected.
Will clergy and parishioners be asking their Diocesan Bishops if they will be allowing these interlopers to minister within their dioceses, undercutting their authority and that of all who have been appointed under due process? Have any Diocesans already indicated that they will accept or reject such interlopers?
Ah yes, the pulpit wars in Bristol during the Reformation come to mind. Guaranteed to liven up any Sunday morning service!
I am concerned for the impact on the health of a regular contributor here on all things evangelical when he discovers that All Soul’s Langham Place has a dress code.
Birettas with red silk lining (gaiters and other dress, optional).
The prospect of someone wearing a biretta and gaiters is too bizarre to contemplate, but perhaps it reflects the diversity in the CofE it provides. I do remember a previous vicar of the very anglo-catholic parish church of St Peters Horbury in the (then) diocese of Wakefield, turning up to an outside event in a soutane, trilby and paisley scarf.
M&S have a good line in Smart/Casual T-shirts and chinos which happy-clappy ministers could afford. I am utterly shocked that a clerical collar is required – particularly during hot weather when many evangelicals offset their fixed grins with a pair of shorts.
What is the job description of an ‘overseer’ in this context?
Just check out the NT.
“Followed by a light lunch” rather undermines the sense of gravitas.
You don’t have coffee and munchies after ordinations or consecrations in the UK?
In USA it is reported that there are strong moves by those of orthodox/hardline Christian views to end ‘no fault’ divorces. Wonder how soon that movement will transfer over to UK?
It is already in the UK: https://www.christian.org.uk/news/no-fault-divorce-undermines-vow-to-remain-married-for-better-and-for-worse/
Yes – but as yet no political traction, unlike USA where orthodox/hardline Christian Republicans have been emboldened by over-turning Roe v. Wade & have ending ‘no fault divorce’ firmly in their sights.
It’s already the law in the UK and it had nothing to do with those you call “orthodox/hardline” Christians.
The Archbishops need to respond otherwise their authority will be permanently lost.
What an interesting term to have chosen, with a lot of unpleasant echoes of slave plantations- and on whose authority are they overseeing their charges?
Blessed are the overseers because- oh, my mistake, they aren’t there….I was just imagining there might have been something about because they root out gay sex ….
It is hard to believe that this is being proposed seriously in 2024- try selling that one down the pub
Have you read about Project 2025, the conservative plan for the USA if Trump is re-elected? (The Republicans could win the House and Senate as well.). It’s chilling and is based on Christian Nationalism. Overseers is just a small foretaste of what we might see over the next few years – and if they change the USA the right-wing here will be emboldened too.
Far too ‘handmaid’s tale’ for my taste, Susanna.
As to the ‘light lunch’, Benjamin, I’m just pondering whether the ubiquitous quiche will be banned as far too iconically liberal a repast for such a gathering… Perhaps the Pulpit Wars will morph into the Great Quiche Spat of 2024.
Please don’t think my attempts at satire mean I fail to take the issues seriously. Far from it. But the level of surrealism to which all the squabbling is descending is rapidly rivalling that of the US Elections, and I, for one, am absolutely sick of it.
They are translating the NT term episcopos literally as overseer. Apart from the colonialist overtones of the word which you point out, this shows what they are up to. This is creating bishops by another name – actually by the same name.
Acts 20.28, Phil 1.11, 1 Tim 3.1-2, Titus 1 7-9 are all NT references to overseer. So they have chosen a NT term.
‘Overseers’ is a legitimate translation of ‘episkopoi’. It’s got no more and no less to do with slave plantations than ‘bishops’ does.