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Sermon for LGBTQ+ History Month 2023

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I preached the following as a sermon at Worcester College Chapel, Oxford, to mark LGBTQ History Month on Feb 12th 2023.  The New Testament Reading was Mark 10.46-52 , and the college choir sang Brahms Geistliches Lied immediately before I preached. * Sei nur in allem Handel Ohn Wandel, Steh feste! In all thy doings be steadfast And true. In the Spring of 2003 I was invited to appear on the BBC TV show ‘The Weakest Link’. A couple of mornings before the recording, I was walking the dog and it occurred to me that Anne Robinson was likely to ask if I was gay. I was an unmarried vicar, and it was a standard question she threw out in the typical, mean, acerbic manner of the character she adopted to present the show. Of course, I am gay. But at the time almost no-one knew.  As I thought about this, the fun of going to London to be on the quiz became completely overshadowed by the fear of what I would do if she asked this simple question. I mean - my family didn’t know. My parish di
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Taking Genesis Seriously

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But marriage is about one man and one woman. The Bible says so. The Church of England canons say so.  Jesus says so. You can’t just mess with that because the government has changed the law… And somehow we all accept that this is what the Bible says. But does it? The big text normally cited here is Genesis 2.24, and its New Testament appearance when quoted by Jesus in Matthew 19.  In Matthew 19, we’re told, Jesus is really clear - God made people male and female, and a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. That’s marriage. Jesus defines it. End of. Except… Except two things. Jesus isn’t being asked to define marriage in this passage, he’s being asked to comment on divorce. So it’s an answer to a specific question, not a general theology that he’s putting out there. And also - does anyone else have questions about the strange thing that is going on with the quotations? Jesus uses two. Genesis 1.27 and Genesis 2.24. It feels l
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failure

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 The bishops published their guidance and their prayers. My initial response is here, and it's ten minutes, but hey ho. If you don't have ten minutes, let me say - basically I'm not a fan. After years of trying to advocate for the equality of all people, of trying to get the question 'are we all equally human' on the table, the bishops have addressed the issue, they have answered the question. And their answer is -  No. No, we aren't all equally human. Oh, they're asking us to celebrate this historical moment, this time when the Church of England apologises to LGBTQI+ people, this time when it offers some thoughts and prayers for us, this time when the Archbishop of York can shed tears as he recalls a dead gay priest not being able to get married in church and know that it would be different now... But it wouldn't be different now. Because the Bishops' response to LLF (and everything that process brought) is to say - no change in doctrine. That is,
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millstones

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So the Church of England Bishops have decided what their 'offering' to General Synod will be - distrust. Following their meeting yesterday, news has leaked of their discussions and this morning the BBC carried this story:  ' BBC News spoke to several bishops present at the meeting who said the Church's teaching that Holy Matrimony is only between one man and one woman would not change and would not be put to a vote. ' It goes on: 'The refusal to propose a vote on allowing same-sex marriage is likely to anger campaigners for change within the Church. And: 'English bishops will recommend that some "prayers for God's blessing" for gay couples in civil marriages be adopted, the BBC expects.' The full detail is due to be released on Friday - but following the BBC story, the  CofE has panicked and issued a place-holding article to try to make this good news.  It begins: 'For the first time, under historic plans outlined today, same-sex couple
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Patiently

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This week the Church of England College of Bishops (the larger gathering of all the English bishops) gather in Hertfordshire to make final decisions on how they will respond to the Living in Love and Faith process, and to decide what recommendations they will bring to General Synod in the New Year. It’s crunch time. Will they fudge the issue and consign LGBTQ+ people to more years of pain? Or will they finally repent of their failure and (as Jayne Ozanne powerfully writes ) at last decide to care for all their sheep? Equally? Living in Love and Faith (LLF) has been quite the thing. I’ve written on this site about it repeatedly . It has been a model of how not to do an inclusion project, with the power always held by a (vast) majority of straight people who have firmly known what is best for LGBTQ+ people at every turn, even when the LGBTQ+ people allowed into the room have cried out against them. And yet… And yet God is good. We are told that the numbers are against change. The Genera
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less again

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  It’s a technical win at best. The official Lambeth report on the Human Dignity Call can be found here . It’s a case of ‘on the one hand this, but on the other that’.  US Presiding Bishop Michael Curry makes the most positive case in a video response: “I’ve been a bishop 22 years. I’ve been a priest over 40 years. And I have to tell you that as far as I know that is the first time a document in the Anglican Communion has recognized that there is a plurality of views on marriage. And that these are perspectives that reflect deep theological and biblical work and reflection. That they reflect and respect the context in which we live and seek to address the pastoral needs of our people, of all the children of God — that’s why I say today is a hopeful day. “This group of bishops today are finding a way to walk together as a church. And the words that have echoed in our ears over and over again have been the words of Jesus: ‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples.’ Not that y
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