Church of England must “learn from mistakes” about same-sex blessings and marriage

When it comes to same-sex marriage and blessings, the Church of England has to “learn from errors.”

In a new resource released by the Church of England Evangelical Council, Anglicans from all across the world share their anguish and sadness over disputes over human sexuality (CEEC).

The video’s release marks the transition from the listening phase to the discerning phase in the Church of England’s Living in Love and Faith (LLF) discussion on sexuality, gender identity, and marriage.

The bishops will have a series of meetings to discuss the results of the LLFs held around England and provide ideas and a “clear direction of travel” to General Synod in February 2023.

Part of CEEC’s “God’s Beautiful Story” series, the film features interviews with others who have gone through comparable experiences and reflect on the pain and strife they sowed.

According to the CEEC, “deeply held and contradictory beliefs on human sexuality inside the Church of England have been revealed” as a result of the LLF survey.

The CEEC stresses the need of the Church of England avoiding the pitfalls experienced in other jurisdictions in the video.

Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) Director of Strategy and Operations John Dunnett said: “We all understand that the CofE is home to a wide variety of people who hold beliefs that are sometimes diametrically opposed to one another, and that superficial fixes are unlikely to be effective.

“Where liturgical support has been presented as a compromise elsewhere in the Anglican Communion, we have seen that neither side has been pleased, and protracted, violent, and divisive conflicts have occurred.

We need to discover a better path forward for the sake of the gospel, a compromise-free doctrinal solution that benefits everyone.

Anglicans from both the Church of the Ascension in Pittsburgh and the United States Episcopal Church have contributed to the film (TEC).

A compromise was achieved with the assistance of outside mediators, allowing the Church of the Ascension’s congregation to keep utilizing the facility in exchange for an annual fee paid to the Episcopal diocese.

Rev. Canon Jonathan Millard of the Church of the Ascension said, “At the end of it we came up with an agreement and there were concessions but they weren’t theological.”

Former Pittsburgh Episcopal Diocese Standing Committee President Russ Ayres attributed the settlement’s success to a “spirit of candour and a yearning for forgiveness.”

Prelate of the Holy Roman Church The American Anglican Council’s president, Philip Ashey, recently addressed the damages brought on by sexuality-related disagreements.

Clergy disputes, divisions, and lawsuits are never an example of Christian unity to the outside world, he warned.

The Rev. David McCarthy of St. Thomas’s Church in Edinburgh discusses the impact of the Church of Scotland’s acceptance of same-sex marriage.

The encounter was “one of the most challenging and agonizing of my life,” he added.

“I felt that the church had abandoned the gospel, the Bible, and me after I had dedicated 30 years to it—more than half my life. In a painful way.”

Former Archbishop of Alexandria Mouneer Anis expressed concern about the “devastating” effects that a shift in Anglican Communion liturgy and teaching on marriage may have on provinces in the Middle East.

For the simple reason that “we live as a minority inside a majority Islamic world and this will utterly impede our objective,” he said.