Adrian Youings

It is all about money. 😔😢 I am genuinely sorry that this is the reaction of @churchofengland colleagues in The Alliance. Some have contributed to my own personal journey of faith in positive ways. Some I really like immensely as people when we meet. But this reads to me as a bullying threat. But worse, it is a threat that says these colleagues will just set up their own parallel province WITHIN the CofE anyway. This WITHIN the present CofE is a reaction that unmasks, what no one actually names, (but hey I seem to have a reputation as one to call a spade a spade) that this is now an argument focused on the Church Commissioners (CC) money. Conservative networks have benefited greatly from the CC pots for their industry of (sectarian?) church planting via the allocation of Strategic Development Funds. These plants have in many cases supplanted & made a parallel form of church to our established parish system & are often not welcomed by under-resourced ordinary, parish clergy. This is one of reasons for the growth of @SaveTheParish - although that group is not of one mind on sexuality. These church plants also have a reputation for not allowing any openly #LGBTQIA+ person to do anything at all in public ministry. That is even if they are a lay person, not in a relationship and even not sexually actively. I even know of one young person who when we came out as gay was told at his @HTBChurch plant that he could no longer sit in the PCC…It is hard to see how this sort of policy even sits within the already homophobic disciplines of Issues in Human Sexuality, the present consensus of the church. If it were not for the CC gold, many of those who feel as strongly as they do would have already left the CofE. The issue this letter highlights about simple majorities or 2/3 consensus majorities is just a disingenuous red herring here. Even if there was a 2/3 majority my colleagues here would still want a parallel province. They would also still want it WITHIN the CofE too so the CC monies could be tapped. But if colleagues do bully & threaten in this way and say ‘no matter what you do we will do our own thing anyway’ the rest of us @churchofengland, and especially those of us on @synod, can't keep allowing common, public CC funds to be spent on determinately schismatic groups, whose funding already is used to delivery undermine the ministry of the majority of the rest of us. It is people like me who have borne the cost of our present consensus on our underlying already lack of unity. PLF does not create disunity it simply asks that that pain may be more equitably & fairly shared. It does not give many of my #LGBTQIA+ colleagues the equal marriage we desire. It just gives us some prayers. I am truly sorry that conservative colleagues do not feel willing to bear the little cost they are asked to in the proposals before us.

Statement from Bishop Martyn on his role as Co-Lead Bishop for LLF - Diocese of Leicester leicester.anglican.org/statement-from…

I am totally delighted that @bishopSarahM is taking some time for study leave from her responsibilities @dioceseoflondon. It is really important that our bishops, as well as the rest of us keep our theological reading up and have times of refreshment like this. Sarah especially deserves this given her dedicated & sacrificial work on LLF/PLF. It is a good example for all of us and here she does commend the opportunities given for sabbaticals to all clergy. I think that in the Diocese we do need to do a bit more work on how many of us can actually avail ourselves of this important opportunity. It is easier for a bishop with an episcopal & admin team to do this, and for clergy in large parishes in which they are also in teams. It is more difficult for those of us who work alone, especially in the poorest & most challenging but enriching areas of the Diocese. Many of us find it difficult to even get Sunday cover for holidays now. Then add to that the worries about the practical ways in which the parish can be managed in clerical absence…… I hope we will all look at how study-leave/sabbaticals for all can be achieved together by more mutual support.