Evangelical group drops out of Church of England conversations on same-sex couples
A key Evangelical group has dropped out of ‘shared conversations’ within the Church of England about the Church’s future approach to same-sex couples.
Reform, a conservative group within the Church, preaches “the rightness of sexual intercourse in heterosexual marriage, and the wrongness of such activity both outside it and in all its homosexual forms”.
It said in a statement today that it felt it had been ‘excluded’ from the talks due to an objective aiming for a compromise between two factions, and as such would not be part of future conversations.
Chairman Prebendary Rod Thomas said: “It is difficult to see how the process of shared conversations can command credibility if those who are most committed to the Church of England’s official teaching are in effect excluded.
“If this project is not to collapse, then decisive intervention from the House of Bishops is needed now.
“The shared conversations must acknowledge that Scripture remains authoritative for the Church of England and that the outcome of the conversations is genuinely open-ended.
“Unless that is clarified and the recently announced new objective is withdrawn, we cannot see a way forward.”
The group also condemned the “failure to admonish the Bishop of Buckingham” – the only Church of England Bishop to openly support same-sex marriage, and the Church’s “lack of a consistent and clear response to those clergy who have entered into same-sex marriages”.
