Thus, the bishops have announced that Living in Love and Faith discussions will conclude in February.
Another element at work is the bishops’ effort to find a path of blessings for same-sex couples that are not similar to traditional wedding rites.
Throughout the decade of Living in Love and Faith discussions, bishops who support blessings have sought to persuade conservatives, including Anglicans in other nations, that the church has not changed its doctrine of marriage by blessing couples in same-sex relationships.
This distinction was a frequent talking point for Archbishop Justin Welby, who presented it as brave resistance to gay activists such as Peter Tatchell. Archbishop Titus Chung of South East Asia has not been persuaded. He called Living in Love and Faith “a departure and total misalignment from what Scripture teaches regarding marriage and sexuality. It is also a departure from traditional Anglican orthodoxy.”
The bishops address these factors in a nine-page statement that they released online January 14. The statement, addressed to “friends in Christ across the Church of England,” reads as a formal letter with numbered paragraphs.
It begins on a note of humility. The bishops cite Paul’s letter to the Church at Phillippi (Phil. 2:3-4), and they seek to echo his language, especially the admonition to “regard others as better than yourselves”: “We write as the House of Bishops, conscious of our own shortcomings, seeking to regard others as better than ourselves, seeking to look to the interests of all those served by our imperfect Church, and to discern together the mind of Christ.”
The bishops offer a brief statement of the Christian gospel, but quickly turn that summary into a case for broad sexual inclusivity: “God’s invitation to know, love and follow him through Jesus Christ and in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit extends to all people, in every place and time, without exception, and thus including all those who are LGBTQI+.”
Two paragraphs down, the bishops recognize that the Church of England is in relationship to dozens of Anglican provinces that have developed across the world and across nearly six centuries. They write of the Church of England “bearing a unique set of responsibilities to the Anglican Communion, a global fellowship of diverse, independent provinces bound together by a common story, ways of being Church together, and a shared sense of God’s mission; and in dialogue with ecumenical partners both in the United Kingdom and across the world.”
The bishops offer a concise summary of three major perspectives on same-sex blessings: vigorously in favor, undecided, and resolutely opposed: “Some of us, after careful engagement with scripture and the Christian tradition, are deeply convinced that such relationships can rightly be understood as akin to marriage between persons of the opposite sex. Others, even after long and thoughtful study, remain uncertain. Still others, with equal depth of conviction and reflection, believe that taking such a step runs counter to the message of scripture and the Christian tradition.”
They then turn to a recurring theme of the document: that those in same-sex and other relationships are in pain because of how the church has treated them in the past and how it treats them now.
The bishops say at paragraph 14 that that “the time has now come formally to conclude this Synodical process in February 2026 and to identify the next stages of work which will need to be considered by the House of Bishops and the General Synod in the coming years.”
They remind readers that congregations are free to use Prayers of Love and Faith as part of regular worship services, and they link to the permanent online archive of those prayers.
The bishops promise further study and possible actions in the future, but warn: “With a high degree of consensus, the House has concluded that the additional challenges posed by bespoke services will require maximum communal authorisation through the Canon B2 process of approval.”
“Maximum communal authorization” means reaching a two-thirds majority in each of the three houses of General Synod. Such majorities do not exist today.
At paragraph 24, the bishops write about current limits on gay partners entering marriage: “Under guidance agreed by the House of Bishops in 2014, clergy who have entered into same sex civil marriages have received an informal rebuke. Such clergy have been able to continue in their present beneficed or licensed roles but not permitted to undertake new roles.”
Nevertheless, the way some bishops have interpreted these restrictions has not prevented warm welcomes for the Dean of Canterbury Cathedral and the Dean of Southwark Cathedral, both of whom live in same-sex civil partnerships.
Then the bishops add: “However, in the context of the doctrine of the Church of England and in light of theological and legal advice, we acknowledge that a more general permission for clergy to be in a same sex civil marriage would require a formal legislative process. Following February 2026, we will continue to reflect, in dialogue with the wider church, on the advice received from FAOC and the Legal Office to explore what such a process would involve. Until any such process is complete, existing guidance from the House of Bishops will continue to apply.”
At paragraph 28, the bishops mention proposals for helping churches that do not favor same-sex blessings, such as alternative episcopal oversight, but they show a sudden concern for church order: “The wider disruption to Anglican ecclesiology and mission would be very significant and would, we believe, seriously jeopardise our calling as bishops to be a focus for unity in the church as set out in the ordinal.”
Far down in the document, at paragraph 39 (of 41), the bishops mention their interest in other topics that would broaden the church’s discussion radically: “The LLF process identified the need for ongoing reflection on a number of questions of identity and sexuality which go beyond consideration of permanent and stable same sex relationships. These include questions of singleness; transgender identity; technology and sexuality; and the wider sexualisation of society. These questions remain for the Church and will be addressed through an ongoing process of study, engagement and reflection, supported by the Working Group and the Church of England’s Faith and Public Life team.”
As journalist Tim Wyatt observes, nearly all the bishops approved this statement, but liberal church members are distressed by its caution:
We’ve known that this was coming since the bishops met in October and concluded that they’d run out of road. But the statement, released on Wednesday, is the official agreed position (it passed in a vote 35-1, with 4 abstentions) that the hierarchy has adopted. …
So Living in Love and Faith, which started way back in 2017, is finished. But only really as a brand-name. LLF and the PLF may be done, but the church and its leadership are going to move straight on to some “next stages of work” on the very same issues. …
The five year term which began in 2021 will elapse after the July meeting of the synod, and every diocese will elect new clergy and lay people to represent it. Right now, nobody, even the most enthusiastic liberal, thinks starting a Canon B2 procedure to try and introduce standalone gay blessings is worth it, as it needs a two-thirds majority in each house of the synod which just does not exist.
The depth of liberals’ dissatisfaction is clear in a statement issued by OneBody OneFaith:
We are particularly dismayed that the bishops have once again refused to move on the two issues that matter most to LGBT+ Christians: the celebration and blessing of same-sex marriage and equal access to ordained ministry. Clergy in same sex marriages remain barred from new appointments. Candidates for ordination in same sex marriages remain excluded. Same sex couples remain unable to marry in their parish churches.
Instead, the Church of England is offered another working group, another two-year timetable, and another cycle of uncertainty. For LGBT+ people, whose lives and relationships are not theoretical, this is not pastoral care. It is institutional cruelty dressed up as caution. …
We call on the House of Bishops to recognise that leadership is not about managing disagreement indefinitely. It is about naming injustice and ending it. The Church of England now stands at a crossroads. It can continue to defer equality in the name of unity, or it can choose the costly, liberating truth of the Gospel. The examples of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church in Wales as well as Quakers, United Reformed and Methodists among others powerfully demonstrate that a different way is possible where there is the courage to take it.
In short, this is the end of LLF discussions, but far from the end of bishops, other clergy, and laity in the Church of England pushing against the boundaries of traditional Christian teachings on sexual behavior and marriage.