Alice Goodman Prospect Clerical life: Will the Church of England survive?
“According to the census less than half the population is now Christian. But in my parish, I still see parents passing their faith down to their children”
A new Resources Guide is now available from the Lambeth Conference team.
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Agents of contamination and decomposition – transcript of the vlog: Unadulterated Love episode 3
Alice Goodman writes, of the census figures “The Muslims are doing well (though hardly likely to overtake the Christians in number any time before Gabriel blows his horn)”. If so, we may expect the horn to blow around 2050, at least on the basis of the census figures from 2001, 2011 and 2021, which show Christians dropping by about 12 percentage points a decade and Muslims rising by about 2 points. Extrapolating, the 40-point gap should close in about three decades, at about 11% each, with about 70% professing no religion.
Vaughan Roberts is the leading conservative evangelical voice in this country. He lives with same sex attraction.
Colin Coward’s comments are a travesty of the truth. How can our leaders – who themselves live with same sex attraction – see themselves as contamination.
It’s a grotesque misrepresentation.
I find Colin Coward is generally very informed and trustworthy. He raises an interesting angle on the CEEC demand for a settlement as seeking to establish a cordon sanitaire. “Same sex attraction” is a semi-pathological word only used in conservative evangelical circles. We don’t speak of living with “opposite sex attraction,” do we? Being gay is just as ordinary as being heterosexual. “Same sex attraction” is the language of shaming. The use of shaming pathological language actually underpins Colin Coward’s point. Conservative evangelicals do view LGBTIQ+ people as a threat to their own institutional power, and with it their assurance… Read more »
I think the phrase “lives with same-sex attraction” ends up proving the point Colin Coward was making.
I am autistic. I live with anxiety and depression. Autism is a part of my identity and not something that I see as a negative but just as a difference. Anxiety is something that I would rather not have but don’t have a choice about as it can’t be cured. If you “live with” same sex attraction it’s unwanted and undesirable.
Consider also the existing “theology of taint” as applied to the ordination of women.
Thanks Daisy. I agree that the expression has deliberate or unconscious suggestions of gay and lesbian sexual attraction being an affliction, rather than simply being an integral part of who a person is. It sounds a bit like saying ‘I live with asthma’ (or HIV). Your distinction between a person’s autistic mind (who they are) and other more negative things they may endure is well made. I have people in my close family who are autistic, and I know full well how that can be accompanied by frustrations, but they also have absolutely fabulous minds which enrich me and quite… Read more »
There is sensible article in the Weekend FT with the following title:
The Church of England can learn from Episcopalians on same-sex marriageDivisions currently roiling the global Anglican church may fade in the face of lived reality
https://www.ft.com/content/140468f3-f0c9-4a0c-9f53-6ffd0990217a
The only contentious moment in it that I could find is: ‘our [parish] experience has taught us something fundamental: LGBTQ Anglicans are pretty boring.’ (!)
I managed to call it up and read it on-line the first time round, but then it appeared to be behind the FT firewall
Forgive me, Thinking Anglicans, but I need to make here such a lateral view on this post, well, actually an analysis on the post itself, despite its content, which comes mostly from the outside, if that matters. While I’m writing here from just the gay GS decision day, I’ve read this site for years and years beforehand… And I can’t hardly to remember a so small weekend opinion post as this week one, with a so small number of links!… So; let us to stop for a little bit: Your Church is on perhaps its most important breaking point of… Read more »
“most important breaking point of its history” I think this bit of hyperbole would benefit from some historical perspective. I can think of a few breaking points in the history of the CofE more important than this one: Division over the computus Viking invasion of northern and eastern England Murder of ++Thomas Excommunication of King John Henrician rejection of Papal authority Dissolution of the monasteries Iconoclasm under the reformers Restoration of Roman authority under Mary Various Acts of Conformity Civil war The Protectorate (and abolition of bishops) The Glorious Revolution Departure of the Methodists Oxford Movement Independence of churches in… Read more »