THE national director of the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), the Revd John Dunnett, has resigned as an honorary canon of Chelmsford Cathedral over the decision to use prayers of blessing for same-sex couples at cathedral services.
Mr Dunnett was one of more than 150 signatories to a letter sent last November, after the cathedral’s decision to use the Prayers of Love and Faith was announced. The decision, they wrote, left them “feeling disenfranchised from the life and worship of the Cathedral”.
The other signatories have not been made public, but Mr Dunnett said that they comprise priests, churchwardens, PCC members, and diocesan-synod members.
The letter called on the Dean, the Very Revd Dr Jessica Martin, and the Bishop of Chelmsford, Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, to reconsider the decision — “and hopefully reverse it”. In a reply sent last month, the Bishop and Dean declined to do so, Mr Dunnett said.
On Wednesday, Dr Martin said that she was “very sorry that John has not felt able to continue as Honorary Canon: he will be a loss to the breadth and richness of our community.
“The Cathedral took the decision to offer the Prayers of Love and Faith over time, consulting with Chapter, the Senior Leadership Team, and the Cathedral Forum; and is one of many Cathedrals to have done so,” she said.
“We continue to be a Cathedral for the whole diocese, to which all belong and all are welcome whatever their conviction on this issue, as the seat of the Bishop and the mother Church of the Diocese.”
Next week, the General Synod will consider a motion from the House of Bishops which formally brings the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process to an end (News, 16 January). But, Mr Dunnett said on Tuesday, it would be “duplicitous of any bishops who say it is being paused, because it’s not. The LLF trajectory has not stopped.”
He suggested that the motion was “paving the way for the House of Bishops to bring a Measure to Synod for clergy same-sex marriage” (News, 23 January).
The CEEC has previously called for structural changes to the Church of England to provide separate provision for churches on either side of the LLF debate.
On Tuesday, Mr Dunnett suggested that specific provision could be made in Chelmsford for people in the diocese who took a traditional position on marriage and sexuality to enable them to continue participating in shared structures, despite being in “impaired fellowship”. He gave as an example the idea of appointing a second Dean to act alongside Dr Martin.
Mr Dunnett said that he hoped to maintain good relations with both Dr Francis-Dehqani and Dr Martin. “I hope there is no animosity, because it is about something more important than that.
“It’s not about how Dean Martin, Bishop Guli, and Reverend Dunnett ‘get on’ — this is about the future of the C of E and whether it will depart from its historic understanding on marriage and sexual ethics.”
Last month, the chairs of Together for the Church of England, which campaigns for greater inclusivity for LGBTQ+ people, said that they were disappointed by the Bishops’ decisions on LLF.
The Vice-Dean of Bristol, Canon Neil Patterson, and Professor Helen King, a General Synod representative for Oxford diocese, said that the Bishops had acted in “the spirit not of Prophecy but of Procrastination”.