Church of England faces renewed calls for LGBT acceptance

Days before Church of England bishops are scheduled to discuss their official guidance on marriage and sexuality, groups on both sides of the theological debate have redoubled their appeals.

Church members who affirm the authority of Scripture asked the bishops to hold the line on church doctrine and resist “loud” calls for change, while LGBT parishioners and clergy demanded full acceptance into the life and ministry of the Church.

The opening salvo came Sept. 2 when Nicholas Chamberlain, Bishop of Grantham, publicly announced that he is gay. Chamberlain, the first Church of England clergy to make such a proclamation, reportedly came forward only after a newspaper threatened to reveal his relationship with his long-time partner. His announcement has become the flashpoint for almost daily demands for the Church of England to recognize “diversity of theology within the Church.”

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, head of the Church of England and the global Anglican Communion, said he knew Chamberlain was gay and in a “long-term, committed” relationship at the time of his appointment in November. According to church “guidance,” gay and lesbian clergy can be in civil unions as long as they remain celibate. Welby said Chamberlain’s relationship met that standard. The bishop lives with his partner but not in a civil union or marriage.

Representatives from the conservative Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON Global) and its local branch, GAFCON United Kingdom, called Chamberlain’s appointment an “error.”

“There are aspects of this appointment which are a serious cause for concern for biblically orthodox Anglicans around the world,” wrote Rev. Peter Jensen, general secretary of GAFCON Global, and Rev. Andy Lines, chairman of GAFCON U.K., in a Sept. 3 joint statement.

GAFCON rejects current church guidance as confusing and a poor modeling of the nature of sex and marriage. And its leaders questioned why the church didn’t publicly disclose Chamberlain’s sexuality and relationship, which his parishioners and his bishop already knew about.

“In this case, the element of secrecy in the appointment to the episcopacy of a man in a same-sex relationship gives the impression that it has been arranged with the aim of presenting the church with a ‘fait accompli,’” Jensen and Lines wrote.

For GAFCON members, Welby’s actions come perilously close to those of the U.S.-based Episcopal Church, which a global convocation of Anglican Communion Archbishops sanctioned in January for its blatant violation of church polity in ordaining an actively gay bishop and blessing same-sex marriages.

On the heels of Chamberlain’s “outing,” 14 gay and lesbian clergy and laity in civil marriages called on the College of Bishops “to be bold and honest” about the direction the church is taking.

“We fully appreciate that the time may not yet be right for a change in the Church’s official understanding of marriage,” they wrote in an open letter published Sept. 4 in The Sunday Times. “Many in our parishes have already made that move and it is time to respect that a diversity of theology within the Church now exists and that there is more than one understanding of what a faithful Christian may believe on these issues.”

England recognized same-sex marriage in 2014. The Church of England does not.

The public airing of the internal debate follows two years of “shared conversations”—meetings held throughout England offering laity and clergy a forum to discuss the issues of sexuality. Facilitators asked only one question: “Given the significant changes in our culture in relation to human sexuality, how should the Church respond?”

A diminished view of Scripture and acquiescence to LGBT demands characterized the meetings said Susie Leafe, director of Reform, a network of conservative evangelicals, and Rev. Andrew Symes, executive secretary of the website Anglican Mainstream.

Leafe said those advocating LGBT “inclusion” use the Bible as a “source of reflection rather than our authoritative guide.” She and Symes said meeting organizers chose to ignore theology and focused on teaching disparate groups how to “disagree well,” placing reconciliation before repentance.

“In other words, it is a process which in theological terms is pluralistic—it abandons any attempt to know what is ‘right,’” Symes said. “It allows the messy implication that ‘truth’ may be partly found in mutually contradictory positions.”

Next week’s College of Bishops meeting will include bishops from the Scottish Episcopal Church, which recently began blessing same-sex marriages, and the Church in Wales. Leaf said despite the appearance of church acceptance of cultural sexual values, “there are good orthodox bishops who will be present, and they need our prayers.”

The College of Bishops does not have the authority to change Church doctrine, but they can issue “guidance” on doctrinal interpretation, as they did in allowing for celibate cohabitation and civil unions for gay and lesbian clergy.

Later this fall, the House of Bishops will meet to discuss the same issues. The full General Synod meets in February.

Leafe and Symes do not want the Church of England to divide, but they are not confident it can endure in its present form.

“I have no doubt that God will build His Church—I just don’t know what that will look like in the Anglican context in England,” Leafe told me. “Some people are already planting Anglican churches outside the [Church of England] structures, while others are committed to remaining and reforming the church from within.”