THE Rector of St Helen’s, Bishopsgate, in London, the Revd William Taylor, has characterised the bishops of the Church of England as “false teachers” and “clear heretics”, in a sermon published on YouTube last week.
Speaking at St Helen’s on 10 September, Mr Taylor said that it was “quite simply impossible to fathom how a person could get consecrated by a group of bishops who are engaged in any way with the LLF process to move it forward” or remain “in any sense in spiritual fellowship” with them.
He took as his text Titus 3, focusing on St Paul’s injunction to “Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them.”
“How can you possibly be allowing somebody who is in fellowship with unfaithful, clear heretics to select your future leaders, to train your new church workers, ordain your new deacons and presbyters, and install your new incumbents?” Mr Taylor said.
In an article posted on the website of the Church Society on Sunday, the organisation’s director, the Revd Dr Lee Gatiss, said that, while he agreed with “much” of Mr Taylor’s “diagnosis of the present crisis in the Church of England”, he was increasingly worried about the “ecclesiology of [Taylor’s] proposed alternative”.
St Helen’s has been in a “broken partnership” with the C of E since 2020, when Mr Taylor said that the bishops had taken a “pathway of self-serving and divisive schism” over the introduction of blessings for same-sex couples (News, 22 December 2020).
In an interview with the podcast Bible Matters, recorded on the same day as the address, Mr Taylor said: “We’re very clear in the church that we’re not going to encourage people to go forward for selection in the Church of England through the Ministry Division of the Church of England,” or pursue ordination “through the Church of England or those in fellowship with the House of Bishops”.
In the podcast, Mr Taylor suggested that there were “between 20 and 30 churches” willing to employ people who had been ordained by the Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa (REACH SA), whose orders are recognised by the C of E.
At least 14 people have been ordained deacon in London by a REACH-SA bishop over the past two summers (News, 26 June 2026).
In a letter in response to the first round of ordinations, in 2025, Archbishop Mullally, then Bishop of London, and the Archbishop of York said that that proceedings were “ecumenically discourteous” and that it “should not be assumed” that those ordained would receive permission to officiate (News, 4 July 2025).
In the interview, Mr Taylor said that he could not accept the ministry of the designated bishops for conservative Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics opposed to the ordination of women, as such bishops “aren’t independent, and they’re not separate”.
Asked to whom he was accountable, he said that the former Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Revd Julian Henderson, was acting as as his “spiritual overseer”, as part of a system co-ordinated by the Church of England Evangelical Council (News, 19 July 2024).
Dr Gatiss took issue with this type of oversight, suggesting that it was intended as a temporary measure, and did not amount to full accountability, as an alternative overseer did not have the power to discipline a minister.
There was, he said, “a danger in creating a small evangelical ecosystem” of selection, training, ordination and oversight. “Who then tells us when we are wrong? Who can get rid of us or discipline us when we go astray?”
He wrote that “the solution to bad episcopal oversight cannot simply be no effective episcopal oversight at all, or choosing my own personal bishop whose authority over me exists only by my continuing consent.”
Instead, Dr Gatiss urged like-minded churches to “remain, contend, and work to reform and renew the Church of England in biblical faith”.
Mr Taylor’s comments drew a response from a City of London Common Councillor, Charles Edward Lord, who said: “If you truly believe that the bishops are false teachers who have left the true Church . . . intellectual and ecclesial integrity point towards departure” from the C of E.
In an open letter, Cllr Lord challenged Mr Taylor to make a choice: either to acknowledge that the bishops “remain Christian bishops even where you believe them to be seriously mistaken”, or to “take those who share your convictions with you and establish or join a church whose doctrine and polity you can accept in good conscience.”
Cllr Lord is the City of London Corporation’s designated representative for its patronage of St Peter upon Cornhill, a parish that, since the Millennium, has been linked with St Helen’s, Bishopsgate, with Mr Taylor as Rector of both churches.
Although emphasising that the letter was written in a personal capacity, Cllr Lord said that the patrons “are entitled to understand whether the Rector of St Peter’s regards himself as fully subject to the lawful order of the Church in which that patronage exists. We are also entitled to ask whether the breadth of the Church of England is reflected in the ministry offered at St Peter’s, including in its ministry to LGBTQIA+ people who live in, work in, or visit the City.”
In the podcast interview, Mr Taylor encouraged supporters to join the “big push” for upcoming elections for the General Synod, while characterising as “nonsense” the suggestion this amounted to any kind of “spiritual union” between St Helen’s and the Church of England.
Dr Gatiss said that he hoped voters in the elections “will not think William’s view is shared by the vast majority of conservative Evangelicals — because it really isn’t”.
A member of the PCC of St Helen’s, Sarah Tett, is standing for election for the House of Laity, and recently chaired the diocese’s vacancy-in-see committee.
Her election address makes no reference to the position of St Helen’s. She said that she was “pleased to be standing as a candidate in these elections, just as I have been pleased to serve in this diocese over many years and in a variety of roles”.
On the question of Mr Taylor’s comment on the relationship between St Helen’s and the synodical process, she said that he “helpfully points to the very sad reality that we have a spiritually divided Church”.
Cllr Lord is also running in the election to represent the diocese in the House of Laity, and refers to synodical participation in the letter, asking: “Is the position that St Helen’s will not receive the authority of the wider Church, but will nevertheless seek to exercise authority over it?”
Contacted at the weekend, Mr Taylor declined to comment on his latest statements, or the challenges made by Cllr Lord, and has not replied to the open letter.
A spokesperson for the diocese of London said that, “following the conclusion of the LLF process, local engagement is ongoing. Like all parishes in the diocese, St Helen’s abides by the diocesan safeguarding policy and works closely with the diocesan safeguarding team.”
References to the wider C of E on the website of St Helen’s are confined to the links in the section “Our relationship with The Church of England” and contact details for the diocesan safeguarding team.