“I’m really saddened by this,” he said. “There’s lots of clergy, evangelical clergy, middle of the road clergy and Catholic Church clergy, who are really disappointed that the House of bishops have taken this step against a lot of advice and knowing that it’s going to cause massive damage to the Church of England. So I’m disappointed that we, as a Church are putting forward prayers and we are doing it on such a narrow margin in terms of votes for and against.

“There are lots of clergy and churches who want to know how they’re going to be looked after if they dissent, if they continue to hold to the doctrine of the Church of England. None of that has been explained that this point.

“Some things in the pastoral guidance show that bishops are almost washing their hands of clergy and the doctrine. It feels like we’re almost being gaslit.”

[The] Rev [Mr] Ould said that just before the House of Bishops meeting, a broad alliance of Anglo Catholics and evangelicals had written to the bishops telling them not to go ahead with the guidance.

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CofE bishops are ‘washing their hands of doctrine’ over same sex blessings says vicar – Premier Christian News | Headlines, Breaking News, Comment & Analysis https://t.co/UKYjUjgEV6

— GospelLover (@hateisfutile) December 14, 2023

The House of Bishops’ decision to commend the prayers of blessing for same-sex couples was made despite a last-minute plea from leaders in the HTB network. Inclusive groups are urging churches to use the prayers this Sunday.

A group calling itself “the Alliance”, which comprises the current and former vicars of Holy Trinity, Brompton (HTB), the Revd Archie Coates and the Revd Nicky Gumbel, along with 23 other figures in the C of E, wrote to the Bishops on Monday, the day before the meeting at which agreement was reached to commend the prayers…

The letter says: “It is not too late to delay the commending of the Prayers of Love and Faith until the complete package of the Prayers, the full Pastoral Guidance and the Pastoral Reassurance are all presented to Synod.”

The Bishops are also urged to provide “formal legal structural provision” for those who object to the introduction of the prayers. Such a settlement “will enable those who feel compelled to pursue changes to doctrine and practice to be able to minister freely without their actions causing growing schism in the Church of England”, the group writes.

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The House of Bishops’ decision to commend the prayers of blessing for same-sex couples was made despite a last-minute plea from leaders in the HTB network. Inclusive groups are urging churches to use the prayers this Sunday. https://t.co/MMwrokW6cW

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) December 14, 2023

During “Sunday Dinner” press events, Lear argued that America was caught in “a deep spiritual malaise, and nobody is addressing it. The Religious Right did for a period and still continues to. But mainline churches don’t do that good a job of it. And the media don’t deal with it at all….”

In a 2017 testimony posted by Harvard (University) Memorial Church, Lear’s daughter Madeline described how her family’s spiritual search shaped her own conversion to Catholicism. “I’ve always believed in God. My parents believe in God, too. My mom was raised Christian, my dad, Jewish, though they would call themselves ‘spiritual but not religious.’ And so, I wasn’t raised with any kind of formal religion,” she wrote.

But faith, broadly defined, mattered to her father. In a 1992 Harvard address, Lear discussed his drive to explore the importance of humanity’s “mysterious inner life, the fertile invisible realm that is the wellspring for our species’ creativity and morality. It is that portion of ourselves that impels us to create art and literature. … It is that portion of our being that gives rise to our sense of awe and wonder and longing for truth, beauty and a higher order of meaning.

“For want of a better term, one could call it the spirit-led or spiritual life. … And yet, as a student of the American psyche, at no time in my life can I remember our culture being so estranged from this essential part of itself.”