Whatever your denomination, PRAY for C of E bishops

If you are not in the habit of praying for bishops, please pray for them this autumn.

They are meeting three times to discern the way forward for the Church of England after the Living in Love and Faith course (LLF).

Will they uphold the teaching of Scripture on same-sex relationships, marriage and gender identity?

Will they propose some kind of pastoral accommodation, some kind of compromise to keep the radically different views expressed in LLF together?

Will they propose, following the Provinces of Wales, Scotland and others in the Anglican Communion, changes to the Church of England’s doctrine and discipline of marriage and blessings, allowing those in active same-sex relationships to be ordained and appointed to posts across the Church?

Decisions and consequences

These are big decisions to make, and any one of them will have enormous consequences. The bishops will propose a way forward to the General Synod in February 2023 and potentially hugely significant changes could be passed. If, as is suggested by some, a pastoral accommodation rather than a formal change of doctrine is proposed and passed, allowing the blessing of same-sex unions by any parish or diocese, this would still represent a significant departure from the teaching of Scripture and be a reversal of the teaching agreed overwhelmingly by the Bishops of the Anglican Communion back in 1998 (Resolution 1:10). Please pray. And more than pray.

What will happen to the Church of England if pastoral accommodation or a change of doctrine is proposed and accepted? How as evangelicals can we be ready together to respond?

The need for a common mind and concerted action has never been greater. Will the Church of England stay faithful to Scripture, and stay related to a global, growing Anglicanism? Or align herself with liberal theology which has brought many churches in Western Europe and North America to division and decline?

I’ve wondered this year if many, for understandable reasons, are hoping someone else will sort this out – ‘please wake me up when it’s all over’ they may think, if not actually say!

I’m afraid such an attitude will allow changes and an abandonment of Biblical truth and practice in the Church of England; that’s why as well as pray, this autumn, please ensure your church really gives herself to seek the Lord for our own response, even as we pray for the bishops.

More than two years ago the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) produced a film, The Beautiful Story, which has been widely seen and praised by many, setting out the beautiful Scriptural story of sex and marriage in the context of God’s kingdom and gospel.

This autumn we’ve produced a number of much shorter films to help churches not to be silent, start a conversation, recognise difference, and look in some detail at the kind of proposals which might come from the bishops and alternative options if they are passed by Synod.

We are asking local churches to do this humbly and seriously, keeping their bishops informed, keeping in step with other evangelicals in their diocese and across the country, praying that God will have mercy on us and, like the early church in the face of the culture of antiquity, be clear in our day of the call of God to holiness and obedience.

As part of this process CEEC has submitted to the bishops’ Next Steps Group a long study called ‘Visibly Different’, which explores in some depth possible future options if the Church of England is determined to leave her inheritance behind. We are working on the detail of those possibilities and will continue to check them with Diocesan Evangelical Fellowships (DEFs) and others. None of this is set in stone, none of it is to scaremonger, all of it is about being ready and being together.

Would you pray and come together locally to be equipped? If you are not an Anglican, maybe you could pray too.