God’s creation is a dazzling explosion of diversity which speaks of the unutterable beauty, unfathomable grandeur, and infinite creativity of the Creator. And so when God made human beings, they too reflected this dazzling diversity
Living in Love and Faith report
God uses the words of the Bible as a school of righteousness, of justice, and of love. . . Our reading shapes our desires, our imaginations, our emotions, our habits, our ideas, our relationships, our institutions, the structures of our society, and our cultures. It shapes all the physical stuff of the lives we live . . . together in the world. All of life is caught up in the curriculum of this school
Ibid.
Our intimate relationships . . . can involve all kinds of compromise and sacrifice. They must always, however, be mutual. They are relationships between creatures of equal value, equal in dignity before God
Ibid.
It is not possible to choose our sexual desires or arousal, but it is, of course, possible to choose how we act on them
Ibid.
We might at times need to learn how to break free from the stories that others have told about us or that we have learnt to tell about ourselves
Ibid.
Turning to science does not mean turning away from the God who speaks in the Bible or through the Christian tradition
Ibid.
“All you need is love” — these words represent a principle which it can be hard to hear without overtones of the 1960s, and a sense of “anything goes”
Ibid.
Our processes of listening and shared discernment are deeply affected by questions of power, as we have often, sometimes painfully, known in producing this book. There are always questions to be faced about who is not in the room
Ibid.
We have caused, and continue to cause, hurt and unnecessary suffering. For such acts, each of us, and the Church collectively, should be deeply ashamed and repentant. As archbishops, we are personally very sorry where we have contributed to this
Justin Welby and Stephen Cottrell, foreword to Living in Love and Faith
Only in looking honestly at the fact that we have sisters and brothers in Christ who have vehemently opposed views to ours, can we come in humility before God and seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit
Ibid.
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