DELAY to the House of Bishops’ final decision on the next steps in the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process (News, 16 December) has been criticised by campaigners on both sides of the argument.
The national director of the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), Canon John Dunnett, said that the statement issued by Church House on Tuesday “reads like an admission of ‘Groundhog Day’.”
LLF was “eroding the collegiality of the House of Bishops and their ability to lead”, he said, and called for the Bishops to “either halt the project” or reconsider proposals for structural changes to the Church of England.
A form of “delegated episcopal ministry” to provide reassurance to opponents of the changes brought by LLF were rejected by the Bishops at their meeting in October (News, 15 October, 17 October).
Canon Dunnett was one of the directors of the Alliance network who wrote to members of the LLF programme board in advance of Tuesday’s meeting, urging them to stick to their October decision.
That letter also suggested that the Alliance would “have no option but to return” to campaigning if efforts were made to create a “clearer pathway towards same-sex marriage for clergy”.
“Another week, another Alliance threat, and another failure to make decisions by the House of Bishops,” said the Revd Dr Charlie Bączyk-Bell, a General Synod member and the author of Queer Holiness (Books, 22 July 2022).
“Kicking the can down the road only harms LGBTQIA people further. It is well beyond time for the House to stop talking and start doing.”
Dr Bączyk-Bell, Associate Vicar of St John the Divine, Kennington, in the diocese of Southwark, previously told the Church Times that, owing to his decision to enter into a same-sex civil marriage last year, he could not move from his current appointment.
“I have a licence, and got married while holding that licence; so I can continue to express priestly ministry, but I can’t get another job. There’s something theologically bankrupt about this, as either I am a fitting person to exercise pastoral ministry, or I’m not; I don’t think I can be a fitting person until such a time as I apply for a different job,” he said.
On Thursday, he said that the path ahead for the Bishops was “perfectly simple: follow through on clear synodal decisions, permit stand-alone services, end the cruelty over married queer clergy, get on with it.”
Of Tuesday’s decision, Dr Bączyk-Bell said: “It’s yet another tragic failure of leadership and one which does violence to the Body of Christ. No amount of handwringing or warm words will take that away.”
On Friday, the Bishop of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich, Dr Joanne Grenfell, said that she “approached Tuesday’s meeting of the House of Bishops with the voices of LGBTQI+ colleagues and friends on my heart.
“So many have written to me to ask that the House of Bishops does not forget that our work is not just part of a church process, but fundamentally affects their lives and those of their loved ones,” she said.
The Bishop quoted a recent sermon by the Dean of St Edmundsbury, the Very Revd Joe Hawes, in which he called on the Bishops to act (News, 15 December).
Decisions “cannot be paused or stalled”, Dr Grenfell said: “There are matters of justice that need attention now, particularly around ordinands and clergy in same-sex marriages.”
In Tuesday’s statement, the Archbishop of York said that the Bishops still intended to bring proposals to the General Synod in time for its February meeting.