The Church of England Living in Love and Faith

‘Before we ever are the object of our own gaze, or the gaze of those around us, we are the objects of God’s gaze. God’s gaze is deeply loving, but it is also perfectly truthful. To know ourselves as God knows us is to know ourselves as deeply loved, but also to face up to our scars and sinfulness. God affirms us, but God also challenges us to discover and inhabit our identity differently. God sometimes challenges us to let go of things we thought were core to who we are, and sometimes to take on things we had not considered before. But those challenges are never an imposition on our true selves; they are always about being freed from the narrow confines of lives turned in on themselves in order to find our true flourishing with others, and pre-eminently with God’. Such words give a taster of a rich Christian document as it sets forth the transformative good news of Jesus and its relevance to identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage in a context where many are looking to the church for change towards ‘equal marriage’. Commissioned and led by the Bishops of the Church of England, ‘Living in Love and Faith’ (LLF) celebrates the Christian good news with profundity looking at what the Bible, Church tradition and contemporary Christian experience have to say about sexuality alongside the social and biological sciences. There is a celebration of marriage, friendship, celibacy and a hard headed, largehearted, unprescriptive  engagement with the issues of same sex marriage and gender fluidity represented through life stories. The book is accompanied by materials for group study including a video and podcast. 

‘In our society, equality with regard to sexual orientation is becoming a litmus test for moral competence. Distinctions made between acceptable sexual behaviour for gay or lesbian and straight people are seen to render the Church of England, and other religious bodies of the same mind, untrustworthy moral guides not only in this but in other areas of human life… For some, the deepest problem is that of sexual abuse. Members of the Church of England, clergy and lay, have been responsible, shamefully, for perpetrating abuse, for mistreating survivors of abuse, and for covering up the activities of abusers. Some of the relevant practices and attitudes have had deep roots in the church’s institutional structures and culture – and some believe that the situation was made worse by aspects of the church’s moral teaching’. The Bishops do not pull their punches on the gravity of this moral challenge whilst remaining level headed on the challenge to existing teaching set forth by them most recently in 1991.  ‘Homophile orientation and its expression in sexual activity do not constitute a parallel and alternative form of human sexuality as complete within the terms of the created order as the heterosexual. The convergence of Scripture, tradition and reasoned reflection on experience… make it impossible for the church to come with integrity to any other conclusion’ That statement, which binds gay ordinands and clergy to celibacy, is coupled to affirming God’s love being as great for homosexual as for heterosexual people, a truth distinct from the unalterable givenness of marriage. Thirty years on in LLF the House of Bishops provide a catch up on how the world has changed, an outline of new thinking within the Church of England and her ecumenical and other faith partners with an invitation to seek the Holy Spirit’s leading for new vistas on the disagreements and differences clearly outlined.

How doe Anglicans see authority? LLF clarifies the  importance of scripture, tradition (including natural law) and Christian experience in building consensus on truth and falsehood, right and wrong. This ‘three-legged stool’ is presented, with clarifications on use of the Bible and natural law, helping explain the heated divisions in the Church and the ecumenical implications of any change in marriage. In 2007 the International Anglican–Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission provided a summary of agreements and disagreements stating: ‘In both our Communions marriage has a God-given pattern and significance, entailing the life-long exclusive commitment of a man and a woman, encompassing the reciprocal love of husband and wife and the procreation and raising of children’. In almost 500 pages LLF makes one reference to the ordination of women although those involved in the ongoing discernment in that realm will feel at home with its ambience. It is a struggle to sift sound development from innovation, weighing age old practice against calls for change, in marriage, ordination or other realms. Compared to the occasional emotiveness in the other debate LLF steers evenly through issues with intellectual and spiritual rigour helped by repeated and fair presentations of rival positions. Readers are invited to eavesdrop on a series of conversations at the end of the book between those who disagree on issues of sexuality and check whether they can identify with contributors including celibate and sexually active gays and trans gender folk.

In a brief review it is hard to select or summarise the material from the social and biological sciences which is a vital component of LLF. The fall in Church of England weddings by 27% from 2007 to 2017 is telling. Meanwhile 64% of the British public were saying same-sex relationships were ‘not wrong at all’ in 2016, up from 47% in 2012, and 11% in 1987 near to the last reiteration of Christian teaching by the Bishops. There is a good explanation of the ever changing LBTQ+ vocabulary. Though the Bishops do not address trans issues directly they mention the Evangelical Alliance report, Transsexuality (2000). This outlines the dilemma as to whether obedience to Christ for trans Christians means ‘learning to accept and live with their given biological identity because this is the identity which God has given them’ or ‘seeking a new post-operative identity on the grounds that it is this which will enable them to more fully express the person God intends them to be’. LLF gives consideration to the misuse of power in sexual relations, sexual abuse and the ascendancy of internet pornography. ‘Sin is at work whenever we treat another person simply as a means to our own ends, when we are inattentive to their needs, when we fail to recognize that they, too, are delighted in by their Creator. And sin is at work when we fail to see that we, too, are delighted in by God’. The beauty of LLF is its continual return to such tested Christian wisdom in its explanation of ethical teaching alongside the good hearing it gives to people struggling with the restriction of sexual activity to heterosexual marriage. In inviting debate on how things can develop pastorally the authors admit they disagree on whether there is a clear Anglican approach on sexuality. With echoes of the ordination of women they conclude ‘we see an ongoing and evolving argument in Anglican history about the proper answer to these questions, with different sides marshalling the evidence of Anglican history in different ways, to suit their differing answers’. The future will tell and meanwhile this resource serves to settle misinformation and encourage church members to relate more truthfully in love and faith.

Canon Dr John F Twisleton        10 February 2021

The Church of England Living in Love and Faith

Christian teaching and learning about identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage

Foreword by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York

Church House Publishing 2020 £19.99 ISBN 9780715111673 480pp