Bishop of Oxford names the Alliance proposal – “disproportionate schism”.

Posted on July 3, 2024 
Filed under Church of England, Culture wars

“Dear Colleague,

I write to make a number of points in response to your letter to the Archbishops of 26th June. Your letter makes a series of charges against the bishops of the Church of England and I have no doubt has caused hurt to LGBTQIA+ Christians and their friends and family. Your threat of schism means that we find ourselves on the front pages of the national press on this issue even in the midst of a General Election campaign when the world faces so many challenges and problems. …”

– Unsurprisingly, the Bishop of Oxford, Dr. Steven Croft, doesn’t like the letter from The Alliance and believes they are exaggerating the problem and the number of people who are unhappy. (via Anglican Mainstream. PDF of the letter here via Anglican.ink.)

Among other things he writes,

“You level against the bishops again the charge of Western elitism and ignoring the views of the Global South. However, your own letters pay no attention to the very considerable consensus at the Lambeth Conference in 2022 about accepting different views on sexuality yet still walking together. …”

For background, here are some articles about the claimed “very considerable consensus” at Lambeth 2022:

Archbishop Welby denounces as un-biblical the decision of African Primates to skip the Lambeth Conference – 13 June 2022.

Orthodox bishops to offer their own ‘Lambeth Resolution’ — won’t receive Holy Communion with gay-partnered bishops – 29 July 2022.

Clarity out of Confusion: Lambeth 2022 – 08 August 2022.

Peter Jensen on Lambeth — Repentance is needed – 09 August 2022.

Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches responds to C of E General Synod vote – 10 February 2023.

Read the Letter from The Alliance to which the Bishop of Oxford is responding.

Update:

Comment from Susie Leafe at Christian Today:

“It seems that, just like the Archbishop of Canterbury before him, Bishop Croft would rather forget that hundreds of bishops boycotted the Lambeth Conference because they could not walk together with those who have departed from the teaching of the Church. It also seems to have slipped his mind that many who did attend were also very clear that they too could not walk together.

The truth is, there was no vote at Lambeth and there was no opportunity for bishops to dissent from the party line espoused by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Bishop of Oxford may have forgotten the events of 2022, but surely he cannot have missed the more recent statements from Gafcon and the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans, who between them represent about 75 per cent of the Anglican Communion. Again and again they have said that in seeking to change the teaching and practice of the Church, the Church of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury have forfeited their leadership role of the global Communion. …”