CEEC Urges Church of England to “Learn from Their Mistakes” Over Same-Sex Blessings
Releases “Learning from Elsewhere” Film
The Church of England Evangelical Council has just released a second film in its “God’s Beautiful Story” series. The new film, “Learning from Elsewhere” offers contributions from around the world regarding how other provinces dealt with same-sex blessings and marriage.
The official CEEC statement about the effort featured the Revd David McCarthy from Edinburgh. Speaking of the difficulties in the Scottish Episcopal Church he said, “ It was one of the most difficult and painful experiences of my life. I had given 30 years, more than half of my life, to this church and it felt like the church was abandoning the gospel, and abandoning the Bible, and abandoning me. And that hurt.”
The CEEC says that the “Living in Love and Faith Consultation has exposed the deeply held and incompatible views on human sexuality within the Church of England.”
A group designated as the Next Steps Group by the College of Bishops has been given responsibility for reviewing submissions from the LLF consultation. The College of Bishops will meet in October and December to deliberate how the “direction of travel” to the General Synod when it next meets in February 2023.
The Director of Strategy and Operations for the Church of England Evangelical Council, John Dunnett said, “We know there are deeply held and completely incompatible convictions within the C of E and that surface level solutions simply won’t work. We’ve seen elsewhere in the Anglican Communion that, where liturgical support has been suggested as a compromise, neither side has been satisfied and long, bitter and divisive battles have ensued. For the sake of the gospel, we need to find a better way ahead – a settlement without theological compromise that is best for all.”
“According to Russ Ayres, Former President of the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, “There are examples of where both sides have worked together, despite their incompatible theology, and where settlement has been achieved.”
Ayres had worked with Revd Canon Jonathan Millard who negotiated with him on behalf of departing congregations in the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
Millard said, “At the end of it we came out with an agreement and there were compromises but they weren’t theological.”
