Living in Love and Faith: Christian teaching and learning about identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage by The Church of England

Living in Love and Faith: Christian teaching and learning about identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage Reviews

• 
  Tony

  This is an important and useful book, part of the process of discernment which the House of Bishops exhort all members of the Church of England to be involved in as we seek to discern what we should believe and do about human identity, sexuality, relationships, and marriage. The book is only one part of the process which also includes the Living in Faith and Love Course, available online.
  
  The book is informative, exciting, encouraging, depressing by turns. Everyone should learn something from reading it. But will anyone change their minds about these contentious issues? Or will they go away from the book and the course simply confirmed in what they believed already?
  
  There may be hope, because the single thing that has helped me to move on from the traditional certainties on which I once stood has been meeting, or hearing the experience of, gay and transgender people. I couldn’t close my mind to people’s real experience of marginalisation, victimhood, the freedom they experienced when they accepted who they were as God’s creations and God’s children. But will there be other people whose minds are permanently closed?
  
  Watch this space.
• 
  Joey Kaching

  This is the official teaching resource for the Church of England (CoE) mandated and prepared by the House of Bishops as a result of the outcome of the House of Bishops’ latest round of negotiations on how the CoE should respond to same sex relationships. Having seen the bishops’ actions since this book (launching the Prayers of Love and Faith and other motions in the general synods since), I went into this booking expecting very little.
  
  In many ways I was pleasantly surprised. There was lots I liked about this book. It has many of the archetypal strengths of CoE practice: it is gracious, careful, measured, comprehensive (in scope though not depth), accessible, ecumenical, relational, experiential.
  
  Stand out for me was the material in part 2 which assesses our current context on this issue from the perspective of society (chapter 5), science (chapter 6) and religion (chapter 7).
  
  And yet the book also has many of the archetypal weaknesses of CoE practice: it is often wishy-washy, indirect, otiose, meandering, non-judgemental, visionless, shallow.
  
  It sets up the debate in a reasonably comprehensive manner but then leaves you hanging, with no real evaluation of the arguments and no conclusions drawn.
  
  But of course that was the intention.
  
  The book itself is designed to be an education rather than a proposal. The proposal is to learn and understand the breadth of views in the CoE and to listen non-judgmentally and be open to having your mind changed. It doesn’t advocate for one view over another (per se).
  
  And that is why the book ultimately fails.
  
  The book itself admits that the role of the bishops is, in the language of the 1662 Ordinal: “be ready, with all faithful diligence, to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrine contrary to God’s word; and both privately and publicly to call upon and encourage others to the same.”
  
  This book is a relic to the failure of the Bishops to fulfill such a calling. And their actions since the release of the book have shown they have not only failed but gone further and abused their position.
  
  As documented in this book, perhaps the main reason the CoE is in this mess is the failure of leadership in the CoE. Going back to at least the early 90s the CoE bishops have been in their majority liberals who ultimately have a low view of scripture, a truncated view of the gospel, and have led the church in capitulating to the culture. They have undermined the moral authority of the church and its ability to discipline its clergy, resulting in the widespread practice of false teaching and unrepentant sinful practice (even celebrating sin) in this area for decades. They have promoted self-expression over self-denial. Affirmation over alter calls. Cowardice over confrontation. Cultural assimilation over prophetic witness.
  
  On the whole, a useful book for anyone interested in the current debates tearing mainline denominations in the West in two. Those within the Church of England will find it particularly useful.
  
  There is much that is good and useful in this book. However, given how irresponsibly it deals with the most important task of expounding the biblical material that deals with the prohibition of same sex acts and evaluating the opposing views, sadly I don’t think I would be comfortable recommending this book to others unless they had prior familiarity with the arguments on both sides already. It is quite shocking that a book of nearly 500 pages only has 10 pages dealing with the relevant biblical passages!
  
  A house divided cannot stand…
  
  For a more detailed review by someone more capable than me, read:
  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
  
  3.5/5.0
• 
  Toby

  Church of England commission publications inevitably have a feel of theology-by-committee about them and this one is no exception. What marks it out from others is that the authors are open from the start about their differences and indeed parade them. It is a long read and because it deals with sensitive and controversial topics the language is studiously neutral. Those looking for something inspiring or polemical will be disappointed. I did appreciate the care which this report has been put together. The decision to end each part with a series of anonymised "encounters" was a wise one and I hope that hearing those voices would challenge every one who reads them. I appreciated the careful way in which opposing views were expressed as "some of us thinks x, some think y" rather than "some think x, others think y". There are no others in this debate. It all some of us.
  
  The report is well grounded in science, scripture and culture. Every now and then the arguments are halted to explore particular issues which were well done. It deserves to be read and engaged with and I hope that it is.
• 
  Chris George

  An almost painfully balanced account of the debate over the issues in the title, I found it informative with its eyes fixed firmly on Christ and Christian unity. Unfortunately, it's very easy to think that the end result of this debate will be another fudge that satisfies nobody, but time will tell.
• 
  Chris Turner

  I love the idea of this book, encouraging a discussion by sharing different viewpoints and experiences. It is a shame so much of the discussion hasn’t been this tolerant, but I really admire this resource. There is a lot in here and it’s not light, so it has taken a long time to absorb, possibly too long.
• 
  Michael Hillman

  A useful book to help think through the issues around identity, sexuality, relations and marriage from a faith/Biblical point of view. Lots of information, and varying perspective. On the negative side it is a report which attempts to give fair balance to all views and so is long and not very easy to read.
• 
  Shakeel Nurmahi

  Brilliantly written. It has blown me away and I feel a greater awareness and at the same time a greater weight of the difficulty of what it means to live in love and faith. Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy.
• 
  Bryony

  Comprehensive and helpful. The conversations that have been transcribed in it don't really work though.