From the Revd Colin Coward and others
Sir, - There is a fundamental ingredient that is entirely
missing from the Grace and Disagreement handbook and
reader for the shared conversations (News,
6 February). It is the witness and experience of lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people who are already
integral to and fully involved in the life of the Church of England
as bishops, priests, lay leaders, and members of congregations.
This is a shocking omission that would rightly be condemned,
were the experience of women, ethnic minorities, or people with
disabilities omitted from conversations addressing the ways in
which they experience themselves as not being fully included in the
Church.
The trustees and Director of Changing Attitude England have
raised questions about the input of LGBTI people to the resource
material and conversation process for 12 months. We were never
included in the process of designing the conversations, or
contributing to the resource material, with the result that the
resources lack that most essential ingredient: the personal
experience of LGBTI people. The conversations are thus being
organised as if it were entirely legitimate for the straight
majority to determine whether equal status in the Church should be
granted to LGBTI people.
The presence of LGBTI participants is not going to fill the gap,
because confidentiality and safety cannot be guaranteed. Changing
Attitude hopes that participants in the conversations will be as
open and honest as possible, but, because of the risk to LGBTI
participants who hold a bishop's licence or permission to
officiate, we advise great caution about how much personal
experience they should disclose.
The reader contains four essays that present the challenge of
fully including LGBTI people in the Church as a disagreement
between two strongly held but polarised and conflicting
interpretations of the Bible. The majority of Anglicans have
already moved well beyond these polarised arguments. For most it is
an issue of Christian integrity, truth, and justice.
British society has undergone the most comprehensive period of
change in the way LGBTI people are viewed, and members of the C of
E are already part of this radical change. In congregations, people
have been changing their minds and attitudes in tune with wider
society, because they experience their LGBTI brothers and sisters,
family members, friends, and colleagues as integral to life and
equal in God's sight. This dramatic change is, of course, also
happening with surprising rapidity among Evangelicals.
The institutional homophobia that characterises the teaching and
practice of the Church of England is present in the conversations,
despite the best intentions of those responsible for organising the
process.
Changing Attitude hopes for the best possible outcome from the
considerable investment in listening to the variety of theologies,
biblical interpretations, and, we hope, the personal stories that
will be heard over the next 16 months up to and including the
General Synod sessions at York in 2016.
We pray that, when people have genuinely listened with open
hearts and minds, a deep transformation of attitudes will allow the
many varieties of experience to live together in faith and hope. We
long for the Church of England to proclaim the gospel with love and
integrity in a society that may have a better grasp of God's
grace.
Colin Coward, Director
Clive Larsen, Mercia McMahon, Bryony Morrison, Jane Newsham,
Godwyns Onwuchekwa, Jeremy Timm, Lucy Gorman, Trustees
Changing Attitude England
6 Norney Bridge, Mill Road
Marston, Devizes SN10 5SF