B2 or not B2, that is (still!) the question: Thoughts on B5A and the Prayers of Love and Faith

Andrew Goddard writes: Back in June I wrote a number of posts concerning the various canons that might be used to introduce the proposed Prayers of Love and Faith (PLF) into the liturgical life of the Church of England. In three parts it considered the original proposal to commend for use at the discretion of the … Continue Reading

Prayers of Love and Faith: The C of E’s Brexit moment?

Andrew Goddard writes: When serving on the Co-ordinating Group of Living in Love and Faith (LLF) from 2017 to 2020 there were inevitably parallels drawn at various points between our work and the contemporaneous national Brexit debate. How was the way we were handling in the Church of the England the complex, seemingly irresolvable, and divisive … Continue Reading

Queer Holiness: A Review and Critique IV: Revelation, Scripture, and Science

Joshua Penduck writes: In this long review, I have explored several critiques of Charlie Bell’s book Queer Holiness. In Part II, I looked out how despite all the merits of his book (some of which were outlined in Part I), his polemical rhetoric has led to problems of internal inconsistency, privilege, strawmanning, othering, a lack of … Continue Reading

Queer Holiness: A Review and Critique III: What has gone wrong?

Joshua Penduck writes: Let’s review. Bell has argued that the Church of England must reach the point of accepting gay marriage as well as implying some kind of concordance with contemporary sexual ethics in the modern West (his suggestive reference to aggiornamento on p 159 is revealing). Although the Bible has a narrative function within this, … Continue Reading

Queer Holiness: A Review and Critique II: A (Very) Flawed Text

Joshua Penduck writes: In Part I of this review of Charlie Bell’s book, Queer Holiness, after outlining his overall argument, I noted that the hints and implications of some of his arguments lead to a ‘sacralisation’ of contemporary Western norms for sexual ethics, that is, equating our current culture with divine revelation. As such, I proposed … Continue Reading

Queer Holiness: A Review and Critique I: Introduction

Joshua Penduck writes: The following is a review and critique of Charlie Bell’s book Queer Holiness: The Gift of LGBTQI People to the Church. It will be divided into four blog posts (though a complete version of the review can be found here: Review-of-Charlie-Bell-Queer-Holiness).  The first part is an introduction to Queer Holiness, plus the beginnings of … Continue Reading

On Drag Going to Church

Mike Starkey writes: In recent years drag has gone mainstream. Actually, it’s bigger than that. Drag has become all-conquering, ubiquitous, the performance art of the moment. The art of cross-dressing for entertainment has a long history, often confined to spaces frequented by consenting adults. By the late 20th century in Britain, drag was drawing an enthusiastic … Continue Reading

Can we describe God as ‘she’? Does it matter?

  Following on from the broo-ha-ha about Stephen Cottrell’s comments on the problems of calling God ‘Father‘, the latest episode in the debate about God’s sex and pronouns comes from Hereford Cathedral. Last Sunday, their main Communion service began with an Introit which re-writes Psalm 23 with God identified using female pronouns. The Lord is … Continue Reading

The future of LLF: cakeism or coherence?

Andrew Goddard writes: Twenty years ago, Archbishop Rowan began his presidential address to the July 2003 York General Synod by asking “Does the Church of England exist?”. He replied that “there are several different ‘Churches of England’” and we need “to find out what it is that makes these diverse ‘churches’ one” because “if we can’t … Continue Reading