OTN Co-Chair joins Living in Love & Faith conversations with CofE College of Bishops
Living In Love And Faith logo
The College of Bishops, which includes all serving bishops in the Church of England, held its second three-day meeting this week to continue discerning a way forward on questions of identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage.
For this, and the last three-day meeting in early November, they were joined by members of the Living In Love & Faith Reference Group, made up of a diverse group of people actively involved in the life of the church, acting in an advisory capacity to the bishops. This group includes OTN Co-Chair Sarah Hobbs.
Sarah said:
Speaking as a trans person, it’s been really interesting to see what’s going on in the discussions, and to see the depth of study and thinking that the bishops have done through this whole process.
These meetings are part of the final stage of the process of reflection on the suite of resources called Living In Love And Faith: Christian teaching and learning about identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage (LLF). The Church of England published these in November 2020 to enable church congregations across the country to use the resources to listen to one another and to God. This led to the publication, in September 2022, of Listening with love and faith, a report of the gathered responses from this church-wide engagement.
Since then the College of Bishops and the LLF Reference Group have met for two three-day meetings, to draw on this wealth of resources and the many conversations that have been held to inform their discernment. They spent time praying, reflecting and discussing a spectrum of possible ways forward for the Church regarding same-sex relationship and marriage, and their theological basis.
A third meeting, (of the College of Bishops without the LLF Reference Group) will take place on Tuesday 17th January 2023, at which it is anticipated that they will agree an ‘offering’ to the Church, giving a clear sense of direction. The Church of England’s General Synod will then be invited to indicate its views at its meeting on February 2023.
