It is some time now since the meeting of General Synod in mid-November. At that gathering the Synod decided to endorse the issuing of the Prayers of Love and Faith, and, through an amendment to the main motion moved by the Bishop of Oxford, to allow the Archbishops to commend for experimental use 'stand-alone services' …
Category: LBGT+
The Church of England and the LLF/PLF Process: Listening and Learning
Learning things involves listening. That is obvious - we listen to things we didn't know and we try and fit them into the jumble of impressions, facts, traditions and habits that go to make up the way we know anything. Descartes thought that the human mind was a bank slate, ready to receive sense impressions …
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An anniversary: and some weddings and funerals
We have just started watching the latest series of Grantchester, the clerical murder mysteries set in the eponymous village near Cambridge. The date is 1958, and the timid curate, Leonard Finch, has, with great tentativeness, started to come out of his closet, and embarked upon a very secretive and illegal relationship with a local photographer. …
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Making a Case for Pastoral Guidance
Why the House of Bishops' new guidance needs a lot more work if it is going to be listened to.
Mood Music – A Letter from Lichfield
There have been a variety of reactions to the letter from the bishops of Lichfield diocese to all clergy and licensed lay ministers entitled Welcoming and Honouring LGBT+ people. The letter can be read here. It is clearly intended to be a strongly positive statement affirming the place and role of LGBT+ people in the …
Indivisible Freedom and a Homophobic Church
Moving to Zaïre in 1987, among many cultural shocks encountered was the fact that a visa to travel there was a one-way ticket. There was no automatic freedom of movement out of the country once you had entered. You had to apply for an exit/re-entry visa when in situ. For someone used to their passport …
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From The Quire 