In his interview on the Leading podcast, the Archbishop of Canterbury was asked whether gay sex is sinful. Alastair Campbell was returning to this question having first put it to the archbishop in 2017 during an interview for GQ magazine. In both interviews, Archbishop Justin spoke honestly about the fact that these are complex questions that have caused deep division in the church. In both interviews, he said that what seem most central to him are stable, committed, and faithful relationships.

Archbishop Justin says he is in company with many other bishops regarding sexual intimacy. He says his thinking has evolved over the years through much prayer and theological reflection -- particularly through the Living in Love and Faith process -- and he now holds this view sincerely.

He says it reflects his commitment to continuing to welcome, love and include LGBTQ+ people more fully in the life of the Church. He understands the Church remains deeply divided over the issue.

The Alliance, an informal partnership of leaders from networks within the Church of England including the Church of England Evangelical Council, Church Society, the HTB Network, Living Out, New Wine, ReNew and Forward in Faith; who are represented on the Church of England's General Synod by groups including the Evangelical Group on General Synod, Global Majority members, the Catholic Group on General Synod, and by members of the House of Bishops, has pushed back at the archbishops' statement saying it tore the "fabric of the Church of England at a local, national and global level, and at deep personal cost to many on all sides of the debate."

"We continue to lament the pastoral pain and division the current LLF debate and its subsequent direction of travel is causing."

The Alliance seeks to hold to the received teaching of the Church of England, aligning itself with the majority of the Anglican Communion and other Christians across the world and through history.

"We affirm the 1998 Lambeth Resolution 1.10 in its entirety which includes a clear repudiation of all homophobia. We stand with "A Theological Vision" as set out by a number of Bishops in February 2024. We are trying to combat the schism that a de facto change of doctrine and a disregard of due process is creating within the Church. We are passionate to serve the Church of England in mission and evangelism longing to see the younger generation encounter Jesus through a confident revitalised church."

Alliance leaders say they will not secede from the Church of England, but they are being forced to set up a de facto parallel province within the Church of England in response to the de facto change in doctrine.

Alliance leaders repudiated the notion that they are schismatic and that they are a small extreme minority grouping, and say they continue to grow numerically with 2360 clergy whose churches currently represent 42% of the Church of England's average Sunday attendance and 53% of all under eighteen-year-olds within the Church of England. The Alliance representatives can be found in all 42 dioceses reflecting the broad diversity of orthodox networks we are supporting, including traditional Catholics, New Wine, the HTB Network, CEEC, Living Out, Renew, the Church Society, 200 orthodox ordinands, the orthodox archdeacon group, the orthodox female clergy group, and the orthodox global heritage majority group.

"We are working closely in partnership with a number of Alliance link bishops in the College and House who share our concerns and objectives, and have strong support from Primates from across the Anglican Communion. We represent the most diverse, youngest and fastest growing networks within the Church of England."

Alliance leaders say that there needs to be adequate legal provisions made to enable all those in the Church of England to be able to flourish.

"The Alliance continues to implore and commend the House of Bishops to reconsider following the correct constitutional process of Canon B2, which exists to protect the unity of the church by ensuring a two thirds majority is gained as a prerequisite for any alteration or departure from current agreed doctrine. We believe the current process is unlawful and lacks integrity, honesty and transparency."

WELBY SHOULD RESIGN

Responding to Welby's statement, Tim Dieppe, Head of Public Policy at the U.K.-based group Christian Concern, wrote in an op-ed, "Welby's logic is actually completely backwards. It is those with 'a traditional view' who belong most firmly within the CofE. They are upholding the doctrine as it has been received and understood."

Dieppe added, "Those bishops who depart from the clear unambiguous teaching of the CofE should resign. It is they who do not have a place in the Church of England, however sincerely held their beliefs may be. A sincere atheist can hardly be a bishop. The sincerity of the disbelief in CofE doctrine does nothing to justify remaining as a bishop."

Susie Leafe writing for Christian Today argues that the real news is that his statement has not, in the main, caused an uproar or calls for his resignation.

"This may be due to the superb media management by Lambeth Palace -- the Archbishop released a 'personal statement' the day before announcing the 'recent' discovery that his great-great-great grandfather was "an owner of enslaved people." This filled up the secular papers' religious column inches, leaving little space to comment on the later story.

The Lambeth Palace Statement also coincided with a meeting of the House of Bishops -- making it hard for the orthodox bishops to protest publicly and for the Alliance, the informal network of orthodox Anglicans in the Church of England, to coordinate a response, she observed.

The orthodox who remain face a difficult balancing act, she noted.

The majority of the Anglican Communion have, however, had enough. They rejected the Archbishop of Canterbury's leadership and authority months ago. As the GSFA said in July:

"The Church of England, has set itself to cement its departure from the historic faith by liturgical change. There can therefore now be no doubt that the Mother Church of the Communion has forfeited her leadership role in the global Communion and that the legacy 'instruments of unity', the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other instruments over which he presides, (the Primates Meeting, the Lambeth Conference and the Anglican Consultative Council) are all compromised."

Many in the United Kingdom have done the same, leaving the Canterbury-aligned structures and planting new churches. Nearly a hundred churches have already gathered together in the rapidly growing, Gafcon-authorized Anglican Network in Europe.

Or it might just be that, having degraded the authority of his office and rejected the authority of God's word, no one is actually interested in his personal opinion.

It might well be that GAFCON and GSFA bishops and archbishops have simply moved on and no longer care what the Archbishop of Canterbury thinks or says anymore, and the Church of England is just as morally and spiritually bankrupt as The Anglican Church of Canada and the American Episcopal Church. The game is over.

END