The Trustees of Together for The Church of England join with the rest of the Church in lamenting the hideous abuses perpetrated by John Smyth and detailed in the Makin review.
We wholeheartedly agree that front and centre of the church’s response must be attentive listening to victims and survivors and a meaningful response to their calls for truly independent safeguarding structures external to the Church of England.
We welcome the greater spirit of reflection and self-critique contained in some responses by Church Institutions, and we add our own voice to calls for the ending of a culture of secrecy, hierarchical deference, misogyny and silence in all parts of the Church.
We also welcome calls for an end to homophobia within the Church. As long as there is resistance to discuss alternative convictions to the view that all sexual activity outside heterosexual marriage is sinful, then not only will the Church remain a place which is not safe for LGBTQIA+ people (or perhaps anyone), but it will also continue to provide opportunities for cultures such as that which produced John Smyth to persist.
We recognise that some of our sisters and brothers in the Church continue to struggle with the idea of a loving God whose intention is for LGBTQIA+ Christians to live lives of fullest expression in stable, faithful and committed relationships. We suggest, however, that some approaches to human sexuality within and beyond the culture out of which John Smyth operated have held back the Church from becoming a safe place for all people. Together for the Church of England therefore renews its call to the Church to acknowledge and embrace theological viewpoints besides those which condemn as sinful so many people in stable, faithful and committed relationships.
We express our continued frustration at the glacially slow pace of change, the delays in lifting restrictions on clergy and lay ministers entering same sex marriage and the insistence by some of a need for entirely separate structures within the Church.
We do not need the Church of England to split; no clergy will be required to offer Prayers of Love and Faith, and no parish required to receive clergy in a same sex marriage. Enough reassurances have been given; the time for the Church to move on is long overdue, not least because a healthy and life giving culture requires open and transparent conversations about sexuality and recognition of our diversity. Until that fundamental shift is made, we will not see the change in safeguarding and the life of the Church that is most needed.
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