Episcopal Dealings

A few weeks ago I shared the text of the letter we sent on behalf of the SCP to our diocesan bishop outlining our 'dissatisfaction' with the way the Living in Love and Faith initiative, or its results, were handled. A couple of people wanted to know what happened next:

I wasn't expecting the Bishop to ask whether he might meet with us to talk through the matter, and I wondered what there was to say. In the end 'us' turned out to mean me, and it was slightly odd: both the Bishop and I knew each others' position, we weren't actually negotiating anything, and I don't think he expected me to change my mind any more than I expected him to. I had the strange impression that he wanted to talk for his own satisfaction as much as to exchange views. He outlined some of the ways in which he thought the process had gone wrong, and said he felt too much had been expected of the LLF initiative - that no consensus was ever likely to emerge about a subject that, in his view, required consensus before significant forward movement. He wasn't sure where we went from here now that General Synod had said it rejected the bishops' opinion, while for a substantial body of Anglicans not blessing same-sex relationships had become an absolute touchstone issue, regardless of what anyone else might prefer. He said he felt very keenly a responsibility to keep talking to divergent bodies of opinion within the diocese while trying his best not to say different things to different people, and maintaining his own sense of integrity.

So I was released from the Bishop's house and not consigned to the dungeons. It was a perfectly agreeable meeting but what it achieved was another matter!