Oh Dear
The Living in Love and Faith Next Steps March update has landed. The meeting was on March 25th, the update posted on the CofE website on April 20th (the day after the BBC Panorama programme on the Church and Racism).
I critiqued the January update for not mentioning LGBTQ+ people; for stressing the LLF Advocates (when the role description is heavily biased toward these people being non-LGBTQ+), and for failing to understand that there are no safe spaces for LGBTQ+ people in LLF discussions.
In February it seemed as though some of this had been heard, albeit a bit dully. There was reference to LGBTI+ people. There was some attempt to talk about brave space rather than safe space. And if all of it felt clumsy, because the bishops making up the Next Steps Group simply don't know what they don't know, I pleaded with them to include us in.
In March there's very little sign of any inclusion going on. Rather, the opposite.
We are not mentioned again. We are de-personned. As usual. Bishops know best, and they will do what they will do. They're very proud of their LLF statistics -
But, dear Bishops, may I gently say that LLF isn't about LLF? LLF isn't a success because LLF is going well? LLF is a success if we find a way forward to a Church that genuinely creates a radical new Christian inclusion - a place where all God's people are genuinely equal and genuinely safe and genuinely free to worship without fear. LLF is a success if LGBTQ+ people aren't ignored, shamed or dehumanised; LLF is a success if - instead of being told how we should feel - we actually do feel loved and wanted.
'But there are 66 LLF Advocates in 41 dioceses! Come on!'
And how many hundreds of LGBTQ+ people are there in those dioceses feeling that you simply aren't listening? How many hundreds that need this process to work? And if you get it wrong (because you aren't listening) then all the numbers in these reports and all the cash you are spending on LLF will not be your defence.
They will be your shame.
Please, please do better than this.
PostScript
As a social worker, we have a phrase we use when considering how best to support disenfranchised people, especially those with learning disabilities, who are arguably some of the most disenfranchised people we work with, but also with those who are silenced in other ways in other settings. It is "No decision about me without me".
ReplyDeleteAs a Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser so many things about the Church appal me. How can the Church presume to make decisions that affect its members, without considering including those very members in the decision making process? It makes of the "conversation" a monologue, a "mock consultation" aimed at telling people what to think, rather than asking them how they would like their church to be shaped for the future, and then acting on those considerations.
Thanks for this.
DeleteI agree entirely - though my hope is that as we go through the autumn and parishes and deaneries progress with engaging with LLF and its pretty awful course, the response system that is in place so that the bishops get feedback from parishes & deaneries will be inundated with calls for justice, hope and change. This is why we stick with it. The establishment part of this set-up right now is fairly shocking; but it's being put out to the whole Church and the whole Church can make this work. If we don't engage we can't complain at the end result. Even if we don't like the process or the materials, its 'eye on the prize' time.