By David W, Virtue, DD
January 3, 2025
The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell should step down, not simply because he failed safeguarding protocols in the church, but because he repudiates clear biblical teaching on human sexuality, that leaves the church, future generations and himself in spiritual jeopardy.
He has embraced the LLF Report allowing for the blessing of same sex unions even though the church still officially rejects homosexual marriage. It is a distinction with very little difference.
He has embraced a behavior that scripture does not sanction but openly repudiates in both the Old and New Testaments.
He believes that God has changed His mind in keeping with the times; that the ‘widening of God’s mercy’ now includes same sex relationships and that attempts to impose an old fundamentalist version of sexual ethics won’t play in today’s sexual climate. In effect culture determines truth not God’s unfailing word.
For people like Archbishop Cottrell, it is the hope and belief that such blessings would jump start the church with homosexual couples flooding the churches, boosting the church’s numbers and fortunes. It won’t happen of course. It never happened when The Episcopal Church embraced homosexuality and ordained Gene Robinson to the episcopacy. The church has been declining numerically since his consecration, year over year with merging parishes and dioceses.
But there is a darker side to all this when you relativize sex and it is this.
Cottrell has been credibly accused over his handling of the case of a priest accused of sexual misconduct. The BBC reported that the archbishop let a priest, David Tudor, remain in his post despite knowing that his parish barred him from being alone with children and the church had paid compensation to one of his accusers.
Tudor was eventually fired by the church and barred for life from the ministry in October after acknowledging he had sexual relationships with two teenage girls, aged 15 and 16, in the 1980s.
Bishop of Newcastle Helen-Ann Hartley, one of the few bishops to publicly criticize the way the church has handled abuse allegations, said she felt “incredulity” at the latest claims. She said Cottrell lacked the “credibility or moral authority” to be the church’s figurehead.
Of course, the church condemns this aberrant behavior and Cottrell must now violate his liberal views on sexuality by admitting the priest’s behavior is over the top, but he himself should remain in office.
Cottrell made every effort not to practice the church’s safeguarding standards and gave the priest a pass, not once but twice, suggesting that whatever he did he was exempt from church discipline.
The victims of the priest were naturally outraged and called out Cottrell and said he should resign.
Earlier in the month The Daily Mail reported that Cottrell had ignored a dozen abuse cases. With the Mail calling on him to resign. Cottrell refused. The BBC also revealed that Welby and a former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, were also involved in the Tudor case - Welby in 2018 and Lord Carey in 1993.
Cottrell’s laissez faire approach to sexuality, which no longer sees the Bible as the rightful source of understanding on sexuality must now include input from the culture, tradition, reason, science thus overriding the narrow strictures of scripture on sexuality practices.
To strike a blow against homophobia, fear mongering and hatred one must relent nay recant, and believe that God wants homosexuals to live freely with any talk of celibacy to be eschewed.
The fact that Jesus endorsed the binary male-female paradigm, speaks volumes. There was no need for exceptions. That Jesus hearkened back to Genesis, speaks volumes. Jesus did not need to touch on other sexualities, there was no need to. He had spoken declaratively and without apology.
If the very Son of God says the Father has not changed his mind in 4,000 years what arrogance it is of Cottrell to believe God has changed his mind.
Privately it has been reported that Cottrell told conservatives if they can’t get on board with the new sexuality, they should leave the Church of England for more compatible pastoral pastures. Cottrell denies he ever said this, but multiple voices say otherwise.
Cottrell’s position has riled up the evangelicals in the CofE forcing them to announce the formation of a new “parallel province” which, while sounding promising has little chance of success.
Even if the CEEC doesn’t prevail they will have raised enough noise to give heartburn to the House of Bishops. A future Archbishop of Canterbury is going to have to wrestle the situation to the ground. It will be painful to watch with no good ending. Embracing sexual sin comes at a huge price. In the case of the Church of England, the Mother Church, it will see its own demise.
Any way the Church turns it will not go well. A remnant church will remain but respected by no one, especially the Global South, who will view the Mother Church with withering scorn; a failed colonial enterprise.
The Church of England has sold its soul for a mess of pottage.
END
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