The following letter has been sent by the Chair and Vice-Chair of Together for the Church of England to the House of Bishops. It raises concerns about those excluded from the discernment process and ordination training due to their marital status. Please pray for the House of Bishops as meet together from 20th to 22nd May.
Dear Archbishop Stephen and Members of the House of Bishops,
We write as your deliberations continue, in meetings of the House and College, about decisions arising from Living in Love & Faith. Whilst we recognise that these involve consultations with all sorts of groups and individuals, including we are now glad to note with clergy who might wish to enter same-sex marriages, we write to draw your attention to a particular group who are not easily represented.
Across the Church of England are a significant number of faithful disciples who feel called to explore ordained or licensed ministry, but are currently unable to do so because they are married to a person of the same sex, or intend to be so (despite Issues being about ordained ministry, its restrictions are often more widely applied so that the opportunity to enter licensed ministry as a Reader/LLM is of course arbitrary depending on diocese, perhaps an even harder restriction to bear). Our dialogue with these brothers and sisters is challenging, as we strive to encourage them in the face of seemingly interminable delay and complication since the first key Synod vote of February 2023.
This situation is a result of the 2014 statement released by the House of Bishops, at the time when equal marriage was not yet a normal part of the UK’s legal and societal landscape. As you will know, the wider context has changed, meaning that marriage – rather than civil partnership – is much more the norm for couples of all sexual orientations wishing to enter a legal covenant. This being the case, there are now an increasing number of people who face an absolute bar to entering the national vocations process. Responses to this have varied across dioceses, with some suggesting nothing can be done and others even recommending divorce – it is clear that an urgent pastoral response is required to address what is likely to be an increasing problem, which remains unresolved.
We are all aware of the concerning and continuing decline in the numbers of those entering training for ministry, and so write to share our frustration and disappointment that these ready candidates (who acknowledge their need to be considered carefully by due process, and some of whom have already passed through much of the national discernment process) are unable to proceed, a situation not unlike that of women offering for ministry for a long period in the 1980s and until 1994 for priesthood. Of course, the ongoing uncertainty is probably also having a discouraging effect on the numbers of more conservative candidates. We urge you to adopt a robust process of decision-making for the good of the whole Church and to end the long period of delay which is seeing people despair of being able to serve the church in this way.
Please be assured of our support for you in your deliberations and all your work, and our readiness to work with you for a Church of England in which the widest possible range of traditions and views can co-exist in a united diversity.
Yours sincerely
Revd Canon Neil Patterson
Chair
Professor Helen King
Vice-Chair
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