…we might be able to glean some clues as to what was agreed, and what is being planned, by looking at communications sent by Bishops in response to letters sent in by clergy and laity expressing concern about the Pilling Report. Here is an extract from one such letter, from a senior Bishop to one of his clergy:
We’re entering a period of discussion. It starts with the House of Bishops meeting this week and goes on to the College of Bishops in January. Each diocese will also be formulating its own way of pursuing the conversation. We can’t pretend there’s no conversation to have; the Church of England has many mansions and we need to step out of our own mansion and entrust our thinking to one other.
So here it is. We will be entering the period of “indaba” ”“ or “facilitated conversation” advocated by the Pilling Report, and it will be done Diocese by Diocese, much as the discussions on women Bishops took place (see below). The vital subject of Christian teaching about sex and relationships will be decided by focus groups….
Hats off to Andres Symes of Anglican Mainstream for providing this revealing glimpse into how one notorious liberal CoE bishop is thinking. Congratulations likewise to the AAC for boosting the circulation of this telling piece on this side of the Pond.
When I read the sort of nonsensical drivel that this unnamed bishop is openly propagating, I experience a whole mixed bag od emotions. I hardly know whether to laught at the sheer absurdity of the bishop’s views, or cry in lament that such a leader could be so terribly confu8sed. I also feel an upsurge of anger at the blatant betrayal of the gospel, the outrageous misconstrual of both Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition. Anger not only at this wolf in sheep’s clothing, but such a traitor is allowed by the powers that be in the CoE to keep misleading the faithful the way he does.
But if the Elves will pardon a brief lapse into vulgarity, I will confess that my initial reaction was none of the above, which all rose up in me later. My instinctive, knee-jerk reaction after reading the bishops words was a strong urge…
to barf.
I literally felt like vomitting out such putrid stuff.
David Handy+