Should Rebel Rev remain in the Church of England?

This is a very different blog from Rebel Rev and is in response to the House of Bishops Statement issued today which can be read by copying and pasting the following link: http://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/archives/006450.html

I read the statement this morning while lounging in bed and wished I hadn't. It made me want to hang my head in shame and stay under the duvet. How can "thinking Anglicans" come out with such rubbish? They say about the importance of treating people with pastoral sensitivity and that there is no room for homophobia and yet the whole statement is homophobic.
We all know deacons, priests and bishops who are in committed and loving and faithful same sex relationships. The “don't ask and don't tell” culture is very much alive and kicking. Maybe though it's time to kick back? Maybe now enough is enough of being marginalised and kept at arm’s length or not "seen".

This is lifted directly from the statement "The House is not, therefore, willing for those who are in a same sex marriage to be ordained to any of the three orders of ministry. In addition it considers that it would not be appropriate conduct for someone in holy orders to enter into a same sex marriage, given the need for clergy to model the Church’s teaching in their lives."

Don't these "thinking Anglicans" realise the hurt and upset they are causing? Don't they realise how many of their clergy are already in Civil Partnerships? If all clergy who were in loving and committed same sex relationships came out and boldly proclaimed it, it would rightfully bring the Church of England to its knees and that’s where it should be in repentance.

I came into the church at an unusual time. I was a teenager. So many people of my age who had been church goers, at that time were getting disillusioned and leaving. I came from a fractured upbringing. Alcohol was part of my daily routine. I had to work out how much had been consumed by the adults around me and what the likely affect of that would be on me and my younger sister. I had to keep her safe in that volatile environment. There was no security to my upbringing. I went to 5 primary schools. I got used to moving into different homeless families places. I got used to coming home from school to find the gas or electricity was cut off. Money for alcohol was more important than paying the rent or keeping us warm or even fed. Violence was virtually an everyday occurrence. Just because my parents were heterosexual meant their marriage was acceptable to the church.
I now work in a school where many of the students also come from such fractured homes where love is not central, yet because their relationship is between a man and a woman they can have the blessing of the church.

Well I am at the point where I am heartily sick of it. Who ever heard of a same sex couple having a baby by “accident?” Children in loving and faithful same sex relationships are much wanted, much loved and much planned. Most abuse of children is by heterosexual men whose relationships the church approves of. Isn’t it about time we starting judging the sanctity of relationships based on the love that is shown rather than the fact that it is between a man and a woman. Marriage as was defined by the Book of Common prayer and set out in Canon Law as ‘The Church of England affirms, according to our Lord’s teaching, that marriage is in its nature a union permanent and lifelong, for better for worse, till death them do part, of one man with one woman, to the exclusion of all others on either side, for the procreation and nurture of children, for the hallowing and right direction of the natural instincts and affections, and for the mutual society, help and comfort which the one ought to have of the other, both in prosperity and adversity.’

I am not an academic I am an ordinary working class priest trying to work at the point where the love of God meets the mess of the world but to my eyes marriage has already been redefined by the Church. We marry people who are too old to have children. We marry people who don’t want children. We marry people who have been married before. Why can’t we take this next step and marry people of the same sex?

I find myself in a very tough spot. The church that showed me how to love by loving me unconditionally as an abused teenager is now inflicting pain on my brothers and sisters in Christ who are LGBT and all of us who think this is wrong. Should I stand by and watch this car crash and wait for more inept statements from the bishops? Should I leave? Should I continue to throw stones from the inside? It’s very hard to know. At this point in time I’m not sure what would be more painful to stay or to go. I can really understand why the shortest verse in the Bible is “And Jesus wept!”

The church in its history has propped up slavery. It took 200 years before it apologised for that one. The church was out of step at times with the civil rights movement. They didn’t protest at segregation for black and white people. The church didn’t condemn the persecution of the Jews. There were a few exceptions along the way. Wilberforce was an Anglican from Southwark Diocese and there was Niemöller and Bonheoffer as well as the liberation theologians. History has shown who was right. These individual priests contributed so much, despite the lack of backing from their institutions. Which side will history judge House of Bishop’s Statement to be on? As for me I will always be on the side of love.