foundations for life

-
This week, the Ozanne Foundation was officially launched in London.

Having been invited to attend, parish duties kept me in Oxfordshire. I'm glad to say I have felt involved in everything as I have seen lots of posts about the event from friends who were there.

I'm also glad to say I read on the Christian Today site that the Dean of St Paul's and the Bishop of Liverpool both find the Church of England's current opt out from equalities legislation morally problematic. So it is. I have blogged on this site both on an essential Biblical understanding of equality, and on St Paul's great call for that understanding.

From personal conversations, I know of other leading Anglicans who have theological questions around this opt-out. I hope they will follow David & Paul's example in speaking publicly.

Paul Bayes, the Bishop of Liverpool, it seems also agrees with the trajectory of hope argument that lots of us make as we compare this struggle with the fight to end slavery. At times our struggle feels like a fight; I prefer 'struggle' to 'fight' and above all, I prefer 'hope'.

Hope is always around when people get together and work together to make a difference. Jayne Ozanne works amazingly hard to bring people together and to serve a minority that has historically been ill-served for too long by too many. I am delighted to call her a friend, and wish all her work at the Ozanne Foundation every success.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

One Equal Life

-
Nic Tall, member of C of E’s General Synod & secretary of the General Synod Gender and Sexuality Group, has published a piece on the Via Media site looking at the how conservative evangelicals have been preparing for a structural split in the Church for years. He cites various groups and causes, and of course it all comes to a head over queer people. As ever. Do read his piece. It’s compelling. But please, remember two things. First :  These terrible conservative evangelicals who are plotting to ruin everything are very much loved by Jesus. Don’t get me wrong: Do I think they are acting badly? You bet I do. Do I think they forget Jesus as they make their plans? You bet I do. Do I think they throw the Bible out with the bathwater as they plan empire and sit in boardrooms like some kind of ecclesial version of Succession ? You bet I do. But do I think Jesus loves each and every one of them despite all of that?  Count on it. If Jesus only loves us when we get it right, we a...
Read more

what it feels like to watch general synod

-
Image
Watching the Livestream of General Synod, I suddenly realise just how much of a toll the past few years have taken.  Please, don’t get me wrong. I am grateful to everyone there supporting queer people and doing their best to make the Church a better place for us. Thank you. A very special thank you to my own bishop, Steven Croft, for his work and support here. It is so good to be a clergyman in your diocese. But it is hard to watch people debating your life. They talk endlessly about the ‘doctrine of marriage’ because this is what a conservative majority that wants no change does. They make a thing the point when it isn’t the point in order never to have to talk about what actually matters. Every minority knows there is only one question when it comes down to it: Are we as human as you? In church terms, we’re actually talking about a theology of humanity. We’re saying, perhaps you might have noticed, but the Bible actually isn’t a book about marriage. It’s a book about God and peop...
Read more

fake good news

-
Image
Months ago, the bishops in the Diocese of Oxford sent out a letter  to 1,500 ministers, setting out their thinking on LGBTI+ people in the diocese. I posted  my response to it on this site. Today, the diocesan eNews has informed us that some have replied, expressing grave concerns. The Church Times says 104 serving clerics have signed this letter - mostly evangelical. Fairly inevitably. The original letter, the evangelical response and Bishop Steven's reply to that are all available via those links. As I read these various writings, I find myself musing on Galatians. Especially as I got towards the end of the new letter and read this: We would love our bishops to  articulate clearly God’s lo ve for us in helping us see both the attractiveness of deep friendships, but also the appropriate setting for sexual intimacy  –  namely in marriage between a man and a woman. However, if they are unwilling to do this, we would ask them to recognise the seriou...
Read more