Shared Conversations – the LGBTI Anglican Coalition meet with

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You are here: Home > Blogs > Colin Coward > Shared Conversations – the LGBTI Anglican Coalition meet with David Porter
Shared Conversations – the LGBTI
Anglican Coalition meet with David Porter
Colin Coward, January 22nd, 2015 — Be
Members of the LGBTI Anglican Coalition met with David Porter, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Director for Reconciliation
at Lambeth Palace on Tuesday. David was generous with his time and we were there for over an hour and a half.
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David began by outlining the history which has brought us to where we are from the much more optimistic beginnings
nearly a year ago.
It began with the Pilling Report which was struggling to land (as he put it) at the time he was appointed. The Pilling group
was an ill-conceived exercise in the first place, ill-conceived in part because formulated by a male only group initially. It was
marked by a lack of coherence and incompetence in the Church.
David expressed the hope that things are changing and that we are getting to a more emotionally and relationally intelligent
place. I suspect all of us present were profoundly reassured to hear this.
Lambeth Palace has effectively been buying time (which some of us experience as kicking the LGBTI issue into the long grass
yet again). Time has been needed to get heads around difficult internal Church ‘stuff’ – hence the decision to spend the first
two years of Archbishop Justin’s archiepiscopate meeting every Primate in the Communion.
David then outlined the somewhat chaotic process by which the Conversations have been developed, resulting in groupings
of between 3 and 5 dioceses with 12 or 10 participants from each. There was pressure from Church House to start the
Conversations more quickly and compromise was arrived at. David knew he needed a longer period to prepare.
The question being addressed
Given the differences we are dealing with in the Church of England, David thought the Conversations should have addressed
the question: How do we stay together? He lost the argument to a more missiological question: Given the changes in English
culture, how should the Church respond? And given there is no consensus in the Church, how does the Church respond? This
is not a decision-making process but is about ecclesiology and mission given the diverse and contradictory responses to the
issue of sexuality and gender in the Church.
The College of Bishops trial the process
Moving on to the College of Bishops meeting in September when the Shared Conversation process was trialled, David said it
didn’t work as hoped because the culture of good facilitation met the culture of the College of Bishops and some of the old
school bishops refused to play ball. Good process hit the dysfunctional nature of the Church of England.
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The Church of England is the primary problem Province for the Anglican Communion because the other Provinces no longer
really know what the Church of England is.
The bishops only allowed a day and a half for the process and ran out of time. Now the regional Conversations will involve 2
nights away to ensure proper process. The intention is to have equal numbers of laity and clergy and men and women, with
20% under 30 and a minimum of two who are openly LGBT or I, together representing the known views around the diocese.
David discovered that some bishops needed to ask him what the variety of views in their diocese might be!
Planning for fracture
The intention is to change the tone of the conversation and take some of the toxicity out of it, acknowledging that there is no
agreement between, say, us and Reform. David assumes there will be a fracture and when it happens, it will be small and
done with profound sadness, with a measure of grace, disagreeing well. The Conversations are a process in which it is
hoped to find grace in each other where there are profound disagreements. Maybe 80% of the C of E will hold together with
fractures at either end of the spectrum.
Other initiatives welcome
David hoped that people at the grass roots wouldn’t limit the possibilities to the regional Conversations, answering a
question that CA people have raised. He would welcome a spontaneous outbreak of conversations at every level – but the
Church of England doesn’t seem to do spontaneous, he reflected! He encouraged us to create other conversations – all are
legitimate at whatever level.
Where do we go from here?
A regional advisory group is being formed, composed of one representative, probably a bishop or senior. Part of the
purpose of this group seems to be to reassure the rump of bishops who still don’t want to engage with the process.
And a Reference Group is being formed, 14 people, 4 pro-LGBTI, 4 conservative, 4 non-aligned middle ground and 2 design
group members. They will share information and receive feed-back from the Conversations, learning from each one and
making adjustments.
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David believes the General Synod can’t put off a debate and vote on the core issues affecting the place of LGBTI people in
the Church of England beyond the February 2017 meeting. This for me was the most significant new piece information I
gained on Tuesday. David does not control the timetable or agenda of General Synod but he does have direct authority from
the Archbishop of Canterbury, so this ambition may well be realised.
What else?
Members of the Coalition had wanted to know whether the proceedings would be recorded and reported back to evolve a
body of wisdom. Getting an organic process going in the Church of England is very difficult, David noted. The Facilitator
team may well write a reflective commentary at the end and may or may not go beyond this.
The Mutual Conversation process is NOT a decision-making process in the Church of England.
There IS going to be change at General Synod and secretariat level.
The coming Synod elections will be fought on this platform.
There are still too many unknowns, and it’s hard to identify the moment at which something reaches a catalytic point.
There will be five Conversations before July 2015, four more before the end of the year and the remainder in early 2016.
Filed Under: Colin Coward
Tagged With: Shared Conversations
About Colin Coward
The Revd Colin Coward, Director of Changing Attitude, is a priest and psychotherapist. He ministered for 19
years in inner-city parishes in the Diocese of Southwark. He now lives near Devizes, Wiltshire, and is actively
involved in his local church.
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If there's anything else we can help with we will indeed try :)
Yesterday at 12:22 pm
Participating in the mutual conversations process. Our thoughts after Tues meeting with David Porter.
http://t.co/t0kz70yMsE
Yesterday at 12:21 pm
Honest & helpful stuff from David Porter this afternoon. Lots to think about... Our work continues!
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http://t.co/uesrIG0zZb
January 20th, 2015 7:10 pm
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