Surprised

So the Church of England is still hugely divided over the question of same-sex marriage etc. The arguments are gone over again and again, and proliferate, and deepen, and get ever more complex. Interestingly, the church is more evenly divided now than it was in February, when there was last a vote in General Synod about commending prayers for same sex couples.

I had a long chat with a fellow deacon recently, who comes from a different churchmanship and theological outlook from mine. It was a deep and nourishing talk, which was great – but what was even more interesting, is that we had both independently arrived at the same place.

We’d both previously decided that ‘if the vote goes this way … then I quit the CofE’. But when the voting figures came out, with, in one case, a majority for one side by only one vote, we found our outlook had somehow changed in the process. From wanting to quit the church, we now wanted to stay in it, with the purpose of continuing to build relationships of love, trust and openness.

We don’t have to agree, to love one another. There’s another route, and it’s called friendship.

(Thanks to https://www.humanunlimited.com for the illustration)