No turning back - holding fast in a hesitant church
- David Runcorn
- 1 day ago
- 8 min read
A New Year resolution for Inclusive faith
David Runcorn
David is a convenor of Inclusive Evangelicals and the author of Love means Love – same-sex relationships and the Bible. (SPCK)
The storyteller of the historic Samuel saga in the Old Testament uses a number of devices to drop hints and clues as to how events might unfold. One of them is the choice of the first words spoken by key characters. They revealed something core about them, suggesting both qualities and the challenges they personally face if they are to grow into their potential and calling.
So it is that a puzzled young boy in the Temple responds to an unknown voice calling to him in the dark. ‘Here I am’, he says (1Sam 3.4). Those first words will completely describe Samuel, leader and prophet. All through his life he will be utterly present to his people and his God.
David’s first words are in response to the appeal for someone to take on the giant Goliath. ‘What’s in it for the man who kills that Philistine?’ he asks. (1Sam 17.26 The Message). This mercenary self-interest is not what we expect from that idealised and heroic musician/king. In David a brutal, self-serving despot will struggle unevenly to be wholly given to the service of God.
Saul’s first words?
‘Let us turn back.’ (1Sam 9.5).
He was looking for his father’s lost donkeys and had failed to find them. And those words sum up the tragedy of Saul, as a man and as king. What he began he could never finish. He never saw anything through. He never emerged as his own person out of the complex and toxic shadows of the powerful alliances and personalities around him.
Saul’s first words? ‘Let us turn back.’
His words sum up Saul, as a man and as king. What he began he could never finish. He never saw anything through. He never emerged as his own person out of the complex and toxic shadows of the powerful alliances and personalities around him.
There is a pivotal moment early in Saul's reign. Samuel’s powerful shadow is looming large. On one occasion we find Samuel telling him firmly what to do (as usual). But when Samuel finishes his briefing two things happen. Saul moves off in new direction - away from Samuel. As he does so, ‘God gave him another heart . . .’ (1 Sam. 10.9, trans Robert Alter). This is a vital psychological insight. If Saul is to fulfil his calling he must separate himself away from ‘the powers’ that are trying to control him. When he does God gives his King the heart he needs for the task. In that moment, it seems, both the narrator and God clearly believe Saul can make it. (2)
We all have them, those first words. They are our personal reflexes, our default settings, the attitudes that shape our responses under pressure – for good or ill.
If Hebrew narrators were telling the story of the Church of England, our first words might be the same. ‘Let us turn back’. It seems to be in our DNA. The Church of England was a child born to dysfunctional parents, conceived out of a complex union of theological reformation and political compromise. This has shaped its character ever since. This is a church that having arrived at a theological conviction tends then to falter and regress into conflict and compromises that stymie the faithful implementation of what it claims to believe.
This is a church that having arrived at a theological conviction tends to falter and regress into compromises that stymie the faithful implementation of what it claims to believe.
This is illustrated by the two issues that have preoccupied the recent decades of this church’s life. The first was the movement towards the ordination of women. In 1975 General Synod expressed its theological conviction that there is ‘no fundamental objection to the ordination of women to the priesthood’. The process that followed was tortuously slow - twelve years to ordain women as deacons (but not priests), and another five years to the vote for women priests (but not bishops). Then, instead of following this theological conviction through into its life and structures, the Church of England diverted considerable resources, did very strange things to its historic understanding of episcopacy, and created discriminatory employment legislation to protect the consciences those who could not agree with women as priests. Though this was called ‘mutual flourishing’ the vocation of women in this church remains undermined and painfully ambivalent. The Church of England turned back.
The same behaviour is evident in the journey towards the full inclusion of LGBT+ people and their relationships. The survey conducted at the end of the churchwide Living in Love and Faith consultancy process (LLF) in 2022 revealed a majority wanting the acceptance of same-sex marriage and wishing the bishops to take this process forward. General Synod voted to support the (now more modest) LLF proposals in February 2023, in November 2023, and once again in July 2024.
Instead, the process has been all but run into the ground by relentless pressures to slow down, revise or even reverse these decisions. The claim is often made that decisions are being rushed and that not enough theology has been done. Really? After seven consecutive decades containing major reports, synod debates and theological studies, and culminating in the church-wide Living in Love and Faith consultation process? This nonsense has nonetheless worked as a very effective delaying tactic. Voices opposing the declared mind of the church are repeatedly prioritised over the welcome and well-being of the very people these debates have actually been about. The call is, ‘let us turn back’.
The claim is often made that decisions are being rushed and that not enough theology has been done. Really? After seven consecutive decades containing major reports, synod debates and theological studies, and culminating in the church-wide Living in Love and Faith consultation process? This has nonetheless worked as a very effective delaying tactic.
IE’s forthcoming book, Evangelical and Inclusive - a Future and a Hope, includes a number of personal stories and journeys across this conflicted terrain. They are inspirational, courageous and never less than costly. Simon Butler’s is one of them. For some years he was one of the most significant clergy on the General Synod of the Church of England, and a member of the Archbishops Council.
He recalls, ‘It was in a Synod speech that I fully came out as gay and it was as a gay man that the clergy of the Canterbury Province elected me to serve as their Prolocutor (spokesperson) in 2015. My aim in standing for that senior synodical role was to try to keep the Church of England honest about sexuality in its senior places: no conversations about us without us. Many Synod evangelicals hated the idea of anyone ‘out’ serving in a senior role. Some told me I was in danger of hell; another refused to pray with me. A fellow-member of the Archbishops’ Council would not receive communion when I was present (causing another – from Ulster – to respond, “Bloody hell, I’ve received communion with terrorists!”).’
Nevertheless, Simon’s convictions about the church have been strengthened, not undermined. ‘I found myself believing more and more that the unity of the Church was the central biblical issue at stake. To deny unity, to refuse to eat, pray or receive communion together, to refuse to accept someone with different ethics or sexual preferences as a fellow disciple, to insist on boundary-markers in the Church that separate us, is a fundamental and grievous sin. This appreciation of the centrality of unity enabled me to give my most memorable speech in Synod, during the 2017 debate which led to LLF. Reflecting on Jacob’s experience of wrestling with God, I found his words a new window onto where I was: ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me’ (Gen. 32.26). Quoting those words in Synod, I addressed them not to God but to conservative evangelicals; those words became something of a rallying cry for progressives. They expressed our determination not to let go of our conservative fellow disciples, even as they sought to distance themselves from LGBT+ Christians and their allies, and our commitment to radical Christian inclusion in unity.’
'Reflecting on Jacob’s experience of wrestling with God, I found his a new window onto where I was: "I will not let you go unless you bless me"... those words became something of a rallying cry for progressives.'
The journey towards inclusion continues to be exhausting and wounding. The full humanity of LGBT+ people continues to be denied. For some simply enduring in this present church is taking all they have. The continued setbacks are just too heart-breaking.
‘Hold fast to what is good’, wrote St Paul to the early Christian community. Clearly the first Christians also faced issues that left them dispirited and ready to give up. This goodness has nothing to do with niceness, positive thinking or being accommodating. It is founded on the love that believes, hopes and endures all things without end. This is divine grace and mercy determinedly at work in the midst of what frustrates and stymies our deepest hopes - and God’s.
That verse has become a core mantra in my rule of life - to seek what is good in all this and cling to it with all my strength. It is always there and its gift is always renewing – not least the sheer continuing goodness of the lives, faith and relationships of those in the LGBT+ community and their allies. One of the good gifts emerging out of the otherwise dispiriting offcial statements in recent months has been the quality of personal testimony and theological convictions being offered in response. The new Archbishop of Wales, Cherry Vann, told of the years of being obliged to hide her partner, Wendy, from public and church view and the joyful freedom of now being in a church where that is no longer necessary. Four Cathedral deans, themselves gay and in long and faithful partnerships, have also shared stories of the costliness of carrying out their ministry. The prejudice revealed has been shocking and deeply shameful: for example, their partners having to stay out of sight when certain guests come to the house, or being required to avoid ‘certain’ conversation topics in ‘certain’ company. (1)
‘Hold fast to what is good’. This has nothing to do with niceness, positive thinking or being accommodating. It is divine grace and mercy determinedly at work in the midst of what frustrates our deepest hopes - and God’s.'
Despite this the depth of faith and determined enduring inspires. The IE network is full of such stories of people holding fast in faith and love in the midst of a church that requires and practices their exclusion, while seeking to support those who are struggling under the weight and pain of it.
If the Church of England is to move forward and lead with the theological conviction and authority that is its calling, it too must turn away from what continually overpowers it, and from the fatal reflex to compromise.
When it does it will be given God’s heart for the task.
If the Church of England is to move forward and lead with the theological conviction and authority that is its calling, it must turn away from what continually overpowers it, and from the fatal reflex to compromise. When it does it will be given God’s heart for the task.
Our IE resolutions for this coming year
* No turning back!
* To continue to respect those we disagree with. No one is being forced to act against their conscience. But we ask for the same respect in return, for our theological convictions, and a recognition of the clear mind of the church.
* To hold fast to what the church has declared good – and not let go will until full blessing is received.
Sources and resources
1. Archbishop Cherry Vann. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/03/cherry-vann-archbishop-of-wales-interview, https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1928224014425287
The Dean of Southwark’s Sermon - "God, I thank you that I am not like other people"
The Dean of Canterbury’s blog - https://viamedia.news/2025/10/22/winded-after-the-death-of-llf/
The Dean of Edmundsbury and Ipswich - https://togethercofe.org.uk/dean-of-st-edmundsbury-speaks-out-on-lgbt-inclusion/
The Dean of Bristol preaches at Canterbury Cathedral. https://togethercofe.org.uk/dean-of-bristol-sends-message-to-the-bishops/
2. I explore this further in Fear and Trust – God-Centred Leadership (SPCK). Chapters 6&7 - ‘Selfhood begins in walking away’: Saul the undifferentiated leader and How are the mighty fallen! - when leadership fails.
Evangelical and Inclusive - a future and hope will be published by Canterbury Press in April 2026