LLF : Lacking Love and Faith?

Those of a 'churchy' disposition will be aware that after seven years of wasted time, breath and energy, and a great deal of misplaced hope, the 'Living in Love and Faith' process (LLF for short) has finally been euthanised by the House of Bishops. The CofE website describes LLF as 'part of a longer journey......to listen, learn and respond to changing views in our society towards identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage' and recognises that 'Despite big differences over the best approach to take, the church agrees it needs to better include and support LGBTQI+ people'.  

Some of us - particularly those who have learned to live with the CofE's flaws for many decades - were sceptical about the process in the first place. Experience has certainly taught me that when bishops say they 'want to listen' it usually means they really want to find a way of doing nothing, preserving the status quo and sparing themselves any aggro. (Apparently this is called 'leadership'.)

For the understandably ever-growing number of people who are not of a churchy disposition, I should perhaps explain that the LLF process had managed to limp along to a point where prayers had been produced which could be used with a same-sex couple. The church was at pains to point out that these prayers did not actually constitute a blessing in the way that some bishops and clergy bless battleships or lavatories for example, because that would upset the powerful and monied conservative evangelicals. The prayers, were carefully worded specifically for the two people as individuals, lest, God forbid, it should seem that their relationship itself were being affirmed. Furthermore, the prayers could only be used in the context of an existing act of worship (e.g. a Sunday  morning service) and not on a stand-alone basis in case the whole thing started to look like a wedding. 

Such was the grudging nature and tone of these 'Prayers of Love and Faith' (do you see what they did there?)  that I for one would be very reluctant to use them.  But there was supposedly the promise of more to come. The Bishops - urged on by votes in General Synod - were encouraged to move towards authorising stand-alone prayers of blessing, and even to lift the effective ban on  clergy marrying a same-sex partner (even though that is of course fully congruent with the Law of the Land - and yes, that is the land of which we are the established church - here supposedly to serve and minister to the whole community.)

So what has gone wrong?

Basically, cowed by the sabre-rattling and threats of schism by hard-line conservatives (who, by the way, would never have been obliged to go against their individual conscience and  use the prayers) the  Bishops have now decreed that any standalone services must go through  a rigorous approval process in General Synod that is unlikely to see them approved, despite them being very clear previously that this wasn't necessary. As for clergy being permitted to marry a same sex partner, any such notion seems to have fallen completely by the wayside.  

The loud clatter of the can being kicked very hard into the distant long-grass is probably drowning out the collective sigh of relief of the bishops. Once again the status quo can prevail. Once again the LGBTQI+ community can be sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. Once again, truth, justice and, for many, personal integrity and conviction are forfeit to a rather contrived and fragile 'unity' thanks to the bullying tactics of those who are happy to take the scriptures literally when they appear to condemn gay relationships but not, it seems, when St Paul tells us that 'love does not insist on its own way' (1 Corinthians 13).

Sadly, this state of affairs is exactly what I and many others predicted. Those of us who are LGBTQI+ feel totally betrayed. We are probably in a worse position now than we were ten years ago. I long since gave up any hope of the CofE being truly affirming of us and our relationships and I doubt now that there will be any significant progress in my lifetime. 

As I retire from full-time ministry I have to ask myself whether I wish to remain part of an institution that is consistently toxic for LGBTQI+ people. Do I seek Permission To Officiate so that I can still exercise the priesthood to which I believe God called and calls me or should I simply walk away? My inclination is to the former, mainly because I take vocation seriously, and there are clergy whom I would love to assist and support, and congregations whom  I would be happy to join and serve. I'm also sufficiently bloody-minded not to give the bullies what they want. But it will be difficult. Very difficult.

In the meantime of course, the wider community, which already votes with its feet, will look on in disbelief and say, with profound irony, "See how these Christians love one another.". They may well see a church that appears to be sadly lacking in love and faith.