Dear Lynn and Stephen
Response to Council statement on same sex marriage
Greetings. I am sending this letter in the hope that it mayhelp you – and BSG - to assess the reactions to Council’s statement on this issue, potentially so divisive.
Initially, I was not intending to respond but nurse the wounds alone: then I discovered others who felt similarly pained. Since retirement, I have found no home within the Baptist family locally or regionally and most of my ministry is now ecumenical, so I feel sadly detached. But my Baptist identity is intrinsic to my spirituality, so I feel compelled to share just a little of my thinking.
I know you have received many thoughtful and eloquent communications from opponents of the statement, and finding myself in substantial agreement with the storiesand arguments of these Baptist companions feel it superfluous to engage in repetition. Like others, I was deeply hurt, indeed offended, and instinctually determined to resign from the Accredited List on the grounds of the statement’s contravention of our Declaration of Principle. However, separation is not a constructive way forward: dialogue is the best option, in the hope that those who hold the majority view will hear, and respectfully engage with, others who equally prayerfully have received differing insights, biblically truthful and theologically coherent. Mutual respect is by definition a two-way process.
I am sure that Council will have deliberated thoroughly as a result of the two-year consultation, and I appreciate the care that will have gone into the preparation and conduct of the conversation. It surprises me, however,that on this issue Council took a such a definitive line out of one meeting, in a spirit contrary to that evident in the processes which initiated the consultation. Having been involved in the 2013 Assembly presentation that laid the foundation for the 2014-16 consultation, and cognisant of the genuine listening and spirit of grace and humility there that gave hope of wider acceptance to our LGBTQcompanions, I would have hoped that similar graciousness would be reflected in this Council outcome. If this were an issue for a local church meeting, I wouldadvocate that it not be decided by show of hands (or even secret ballot), with winners and losers, and certainly not in only one meeting: instead I would be advising further seeking of the mind of Christ, even though that takes yet more time, to find a way forward that builds bridges not a fortress. I was on (the old) Council for many years and know well the difficulty of holding over decisions because of the infrequency of meetings and the annual change in the composition of members, but when such a statement effects a flagrant suspension of the Declaration of Principle by which we define ourselves as Baptist, then surely caution is the wisest course.
A substantial part of my ministry has, as you know, been engaged in protecting, seeking justice for and supporting vulnerable and/or marginalised people, enabling them to feel the healing touch of divine love: this has beenchiefly with abused children, victims and survivors ofdomestic abuse, those who work with them in parental or ministerial capacities - and women in ministry. At each stage in each respective journey, it has been a struggle to convince successive BU Councils that it is a Gospel imperative to take a stand against powers that oppress and demean ‘the lowly’ whom God wills to ‘lift up’, butwhose rights have become enshrined in various ways in law. I thank God that through dialogue, prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Union has taken its time over these processes, and committed itself to taking the issues into its pattern of living as Gospel people. In these cases, the law has compelled us to take the issues on board: despite the religious protection given in the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act, might it not be the case here too that God is speaking to us through our legal system for the liberation of oppressed people?
Such captives to the divisive religious structures (and strictures) of their day were at the centre of Jesus’ concern, people whose faint cries he heard, whose ‘unclean’ touch he welcomed and affirmed, whose hiding places he uncovered, people who yearned to approach but whom even his disciples spurned. Jesus’ radicalteaching which we should surely always follow when confronted by arguments from ‘tradition’ (yes, even ‘our Union’s historic Biblical understanding of marriage’ and yes, even traditions that claim biblical warrant) can be summed up in his ‘you have heard it said … But I say to you’ by which he prefaced a cry for a radical way of living by unconditional love and generosity which reflects God’s nature, and purpose in creating humankind, combined with a charge to recognise our own ‘logs’ by which we unjustly – and sinfully - condemn others’ ‘specks’. Jesus was a contextual theologian long before Laurie Green: he did not view all scripture as of equal value, giving pre-eminence to the prophetic voices urging openness to the new thing God was doing – even to Israel’s enemy being God’s instrument for learning - and to the necessity for close walking with God to discern God’s new word. Ultimately, Jesus is that ‘new thing’ whose word we are striving to hear as we struggle together to live with God-given human difference.
This is enough to give you a brief outline of some of my reasons for resisting the statement, both its content and its inconsistency with Baptist identity. There is far more I could say on the issue biblically and theologically, particularly as a feminist theologian, but this is neither the time nor the place. Like many others, I simply ask that the statement be withdrawn and further consideration be given to a way forward that respects both views, albeit in tension, and enables the local church to be the arbiter in this matter under the authority of Christ alone: for some, registering their buildings for same sex marriages has a mission imperative.
I send this accompanied by love and prayers, and gratitude for all you both do for us in our life together as Baptist people, with all the joys as well as the frustrations as we strive to live as ‘pilgrims on a journey and companions on the road’. May God’s grace and wisdom be with you in the many challenging meetings in which you will be engaged on this issue in the weeks and months to come.
Together in Christ,
Anne
Revd Dr Anne Phillips
Dear Lynn and Stephen
Response to Council statement on same sex marriage
Greetings. I am sending this letter in the hope that it mayhelp you – and BSG - to assess the reactions to Council’s statement on this issue, potentially so divisive.
Initially, I was not intending to respond but nurse the wounds alone: then I discovered others who felt similarly pained. Since retirement, I have found no home within the Baptist family locally or regionally and most of my ministry is now ecumenical, so I feel sadly detached. But my Baptist identity is intrinsic to my spirituality, so I feel compelled to share just a little of my thinking.
I know you have received many thoughtful and eloquent communications from opponents of the statement, and finding myself in substantial agreement with the storiesand arguments of these Baptist companions feel it superfluous to engage in repetition. Like others, I was deeply hurt, indeed offended, and instinctually determined to resign from the Accredited List on the grounds of the statement’s contravention of our Declaration of Principle. However, separation is not a constructive way forward: dialogue is the best option, in the hope that those who hold the majority view will hear, and respectfully engage with, others who equally prayerfully have received differing insights, biblically truthful and theologically coherent. Mutual respect is by definition a two-way process.
I am sure that Council will have deliberated thoroughly as a result of the two-year consultation, and I appreciate the care that will have gone into the preparation and conduct of the conversation. It surprises me, however,that on this issue Council took a such a definitive line out of one meeting, in a spirit contrary to that evident in the processes which initiated the consultation. Having been involved in the 2013 Assembly presentation that laid the foundation for the 2014-16 consultation, and cognisant of the genuine listening and spirit of grace and humility there that gave hope of wider acceptance to our LGBTQcompanions, I would have hoped that similar graciousness would be reflected in this Council outcome. If this were an issue for a local church meeting, I wouldadvocate that it not be decided by show of hands (or even secret ballot), with winners and losers, and certainly not in only one meeting: instead I would be advising further seeking of the mind of Christ, even though that takes yet more time, to find a way forward that builds bridges not a fortress. I was on (the old) Council for many years and know well the difficulty of holding over decisions because of the infrequency of meetings and the annual change in the composition of members, but when such a statement effects a flagrant suspension of the Declaration of Principle by which we define ourselves as Baptist, then surely caution is the wisest course.
A substantial part of my ministry has, as you know, been engaged in protecting, seeking justice for and supporting vulnerable and/or marginalised people, enabling them to feel the healing touch of divine love: this has beenchiefly with abused children, victims and survivors ofdomestic abuse, those who work with them in parental or ministerial capacities - and women in ministry. At each stage in each respective journey, it has been a struggle to convince successive BU Councils that it is a Gospel imperative to take a stand against powers that oppress and demean ‘the lowly’ whom God wills to ‘lift up’, butwhose rights have become enshrined in various ways in law. I thank God that through dialogue, prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Union has taken its time over these processes, and committed itself to taking the issues into its pattern of living as Gospel people. In these cases, the law has compelled us to take the issues on board: despite the religious protection given in the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act, might it not be the case here too that God is speaking to us through our legal system for the liberation of oppressed people?
Such captives to the divisive religious structures (and strictures) of their day were at the centre of Jesus’ concern, people whose faint cries he heard, whose ‘unclean’ touch he welcomed and affirmed, whose hiding places he uncovered, people who yearned to approach but whom even his disciples spurned. Jesus’ radicalteaching which we should surely always follow when confronted by arguments from ‘tradition’ (yes, even ‘our Union’s historic Biblical understanding of marriage’ and yes, even traditions that claim biblical warrant) can be summed up in his ‘you have heard it said … But I say to you’ by which he prefaced a cry for a radical way of living by unconditional love and generosity which reflects God’s nature, and purpose in creating humankind, combined with a charge to recognise our own ‘logs’ by which we unjustly – and sinfully - condemn others’ ‘specks’. Jesus was a contextual theologian long before Laurie Green: he did not view all scripture as of equal value, giving pre-eminence to the prophetic voices urging openness to the new thing God was doing – even to Israel’s enemy being God’s instrument for learning - and to the necessity for close walking with God to discern God’s new word. Ultimately, Jesus is that ‘new thing’ whose word we are striving to hear as we struggle together to live with God-given human difference.
This is enough to give you a brief outline of some of my reasons for resisting the statement, both its content and its inconsistency with Baptist identity. There is far more I could say on the issue biblically and theologically, particularly as a feminist theologian, but this is neither the time nor the place. Like many others, I simply ask that the statement be withdrawn and further consideration be given to a way forward that respects both views, albeit in tension, and enables the local church to be the arbiter in this matter under the authority of Christ alone: for some, registering their buildings for same sex marriages has a mission imperative.
I send this accompanied by love and prayers, and gratitude for all you both do for us in our life together as Baptist people, with all the joys as well as the frustrations as we strive to live as ‘pilgrims on a journey and companions on the road’. May God’s grace and wisdom be with you in the many challenging meetings in which you will be engaged on this issue in the weeks and months to come.
Together in Christ,
Anne
Revd Dr Anne Phillips