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St Matthias Day Statement

On the 30th November 1995, as the world celebrated St Andrew’s day, under the aegis of the CEEC, a group of British Biblical and moral theologians published a significant and widely welcomed  contribution   to  the  then  debate  on  homosexuality  within  the  church.  It  was received by many as a thoughtful, cogently argued and pastorally sensitive contribution  to the discussions, and has been broadly referenced, read and re-read in the seventeen years since it was first published.

The  church’s conversation  on the  theology and ethics of same sex relationships  continues unabated. Sometimes good thinking has been marred by insensitive and occasionally homophobic  attitudes.  Other  times,  genuinely compassionate  and  inclusive attitudes  have been weakened by a lack of biblical rigour, and a consequent misreading of the revealed mind of God.

Since 1995 social change,  relational  practice  and  ethical  thinking  within  the  church  have undergone a notable transformation away from orthodox biblical thinking. Parallel to this is an increasingly comprehensive  public avowal of homosexual practice greater than in any other time in our church  and nation’s history. Now that  the government  has called for a public debate on same sex marriage, effectively involving a redefinition of marriage itself, the urgency of thoughtful, biblical discussion set in the context of the Anglican formularies, their commitments and hermeneutic is especially pressing.

The  Church  of  England  Evangelical  Council  offers this  irenic,  finely argued,  biblically articulate  monograph,  set as it is in the rich context  of foundational  Anglican thinking,  to engage all in our church of whatever persuasion. Like its predecessor it is notable for both its rigour  and  sensitivity, and  for this we are  deeply  thankful  for its authors’ humanity  and outstanding  scholarship. Of course there  are other  important  matters  such as equality and human rights that also require thorough biblical thinking and analysis; but before we address such issues, we believe it is important  to restate and reaffirm classic, foundational Anglican teaching on this matter.

As a council we pray that engagement with this material will lead to deeper biblical discussion on an issue of great concern to God, and therefore for his church too. For that reason, and in the expectation and prayer for his Spirit’s enablement, we offer to the Anglican

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St Matthias Day Statement

Introduction

The  following short  statement  seeks to  help  Anglicans understand  our  church’s teaching in the area of marriage and sexual relationships and its relevance today.

It does so by providing a five-fold summary of that teaching based in Scripture and Anglican tradition. This teaching should be our guide if we are to remain faithful in our pastoral, prophetic and missional responsibilities and in our inter-Anglican and ecumenical relationships.

The Church must, like Christ, welcome, love and respect all, particularly those who feel excluded and marginalised such as those who identify as sexual minorities.  It must also, like Christ, bear witness to God’s good purposes for humanity and call for repentance, assisting a return to God’s will whenever we depart from these purposes.

Why is this statement of Anglican teaching necessary?

The  Church  of England’s teaching  about  marriage and sexual relationships  other than marriage currently faces a number of challenges:

Within  British  society,  attitudes  to  sexual relationships  have  changed  in  recent decades and there are plans to redefine marriage.

Within the Anglican Communion,  some dioceses and provinces are changing their teaching and practice.

Ecumenically, some of our sister churches, notably among the Porvoo churches, are also revising their doctrine and marriage liturgies.

What is the basis of this statement of Anglican teaching?

In the words of the Declaration of Assent, “The Church  of England is part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, worshipping the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It professes the faith uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds, which faith the Church is called upon to proclaim afresh in each generation. Led by the Holy Spirit, it has borne witness to Christian truth  in its historic formularies, the Thirty-nine  Articles of Religion, The Book of Common Prayer and the Ordering of Bishops, Priests and Deacons”.

Therefore, basing itself on Scripture and these formularies, the statement  draws out their  significance in this area if in the  Church  of England  we are to express our “loyalty to this inheritance of faith” as “our inspiration and guidance under God” and bring “the grace and truth of Christ to this generation” by making Him known.

What does this statement seek to achieve?

The statement seeks to express Anglican teaching in a way that

•    those committed to that teaching will welcome it as a guide and reference as they seek to teach it and live it out,

•    those uncertain  about  that  teaching will find it informative and persuasive and

•    those  seeking  to  revise  that  teaching  will  be  able  to  dialogue  with  it constructively in order to clarify the nature and depth of our differences.

1 – God’s love and call to love

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. (1 John 4.7)

O Lord, who hast taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth: Send thy Holy Ghost, and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee. Grant this for thine only Son Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. (Collect for Quinquagesima Sunday in the Book of Common Prayer)

1a. Empowered  by the  Holy Spirit,  all Christians  are  called by God  to  practise Christian  love (or  ‘charity’). Although  God  has called us to  love all people everywhere, he has also given us certain key forms of relationship in which we can learn what it means to give and to receive love.

1b. These God-given forms of relationship include relationships between believers, marriage and other family relationships, and committed loving friendships.

1c. The Church is therefore called to affirm and support the value of all such God- given relationships. In a culture which overemphasises sexual relationships and wrongly implies that  love and sexual activity necessarily belong together,  we must particularly commend  the importance  of intimate,  committed  friendships that remain chaste.

2 – God’s Word and Church

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever. (Isa 40:8)

The Church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies and authority in controversies of faith; and yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain anything contrary to God's word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that  it be repugnant to another. (Article XX)

2a. The authority of the Church to decide its own actions is limited by the word of God in Holy Scripture.

2b.  The   Church   is  not  free  to  use  certain  parts  of  the  Bible,  such  as  the commandment   to  love  our  neighbours,  as  a  justification  for  setting  aside teaching contained in other parts of the Bible, such as the rejection of same-sex sexual activity.

2c. The  Church  therefore  does not  have the  authority  to introduce  any form of marriage that differs from the form of marriage authorised and commended  in Holy Scripture or to commend sexual behaviour forbidden by Holy Scripture.

3 -God’s gift of marriage

“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?
(Matt 19:4-5)

For be ye well assured, that so many as are coupled together otherwise than God’s Word doth allow are not joined together by God; neither is their matrimony lawful. (BCP Solemnization of Matrimony)

3a. Marriage as created by God is an exclusive relationship between one man and one woman that is entered into for life and that is intended in normal circumstances to result in the gift of children who are to be brought up to love and serve God. It is given to us by God both as a created institution  which benefits all in society (Genesis 2.18-24) and as a relationship which images the relationship between Christ and His Church (Ephesians 5.21-32).

3b. Because marriage  is instituted  by God,  neither  the  Church  nor  the  state  is authorised to re-define it.

3c. A relationship between two men or two women cannot therefore be a marriage and neither the state nor the Church should describe it as such.

4 -God’s grace and call to holiness

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. (James 2:26)

Albeit that good works, which are the fruits of faith and follow after justification, cannot put away our sins and endure the severity of God's judgement, yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit. (Article XII)

4a. The Church is not only called to proclaim the justifying grace of God in Jesus Christ, but also to teach clearly that true faith expresses itself in holy behaviour.

4b. This holiness includes holiness in the area of sexual behaviour: faithfulness within marriage between a man and a woman and abstinence outside marriage.

4c. The Church is therefore not free to affirm or bless any form of sexual activity or sexual relationship outside marriage but should welcome those in such relationships with pastoral care, a call to repentance,  and the good news that God gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit to enable us to flourish by living lives that are in accordance with His call to holiness.

5 -God’s people united in and by God’s word

They  devoted  themselves  to  the  apostles’ teaching and to  fellowship,  to  the breaking of bread and to prayer. (Acts 2:42)

The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure word of God is preached and the sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same. (Article XIX)

5a. The visible Church  of Christ is a place where the life-giving and life-changing word of God is faithfully proclaimed.

5b. Redefining marriage to include same-sex relationships or affirming or blessing sexual activity outside marriage is contrary to God’s word.

5c. When  a church  does  either  of these  things  it therefore  becomes  difficult to recognise it as part of the visible Church of Christ. Consequently such matters fall outside  the  scope of acceptable  ecumenical  diversity and are a legitimate ground for division between churches.

Conclusion

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12.14)

We offer this five part statement to Anglican Christians in the hope that, guided and nourished by Scripture and tradition, we may be led together into the way of peace and holiness as we seek to bear faithful witness to the grace and truth  of Christ in society and the wider church.

We do so aware that as individuals and as a church we constantly fall short in our understanding and in our obedience.

In this and every area of our discipleship and mission we must, therefore, be constant in prayer, seeking the grace of God

O God the strength of all them that put their trust in thee, mercifully accept our prayers; and because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing without thee, grant us the help of thy grace, that in keeping thy commandments we may please thee both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Collect for the First Sunday after Trinity BCP)

CEEC Statement on Marriage – Commendations

“I  am  very grateful to those who have put together such a clear statement of the traditional and orthodox Anglican position. I warmly commend the statement as an essential contribution to the current debate.”
The Rt Revd Donald Allister
Bishop of Peterborough


“I’m glad to commend this careful restatement of the Anglican norms set out in Scripture, the Book of Common Prayer and our modern liturgical formularies – and expressed succinctly in Canon B30: namely that ‘The Church of England affirms, according to our Lord's teaching, that marriage is in its nature a union permanent and lifelong, for better for worse, till death them do part, of one man with one woman, to the exclusion of all others on either side, for the procreation and nurture of children, for the hallowing and right direction of the natural instincts and affections, and for the mutual society, help and comfort which the one ought to have of the other, both in prosperity and adversity.’”
The Rt Revd Pete Broadbent
Bishop of Willesden and Deputy Bishop of London


“Alongside the House of Bishops 1999 Teaching document ‘Marriage’ this statement helpfully sets out key reasons for the church sustaining its official teaching on marriage which I fully support.”
The Rt Revd Paul Butler
Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham


“At a  time  of  intense debate  and  significant friction we  welcome this considered statement which clearly comes from people ‘making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace’.”
The Revd Preb John and Mrs Anne Coles
Leaders of New Wine


“A timely prophetic call to be true to our Anglican identity with respect to marriage, and to offer authentic pastoral support by being faithful to Scripture.”
The Revd Sean Doherty,
Tutor in Ethics, St Mellitus College, London


“At a time of unprecedented assault on the historic biblical understanding of marriage I welcome every strand  of  support for orthodoxy  including this statement from  the CEEC.’’
The Revd John Dunnett,
CPAS General Director and Member of General Synod for Chelmsford Diocese


“Eirenic, clear and compelling. The  call to prayer and seeking God’s grace is very apposite.”
Dr Philip Giddings Chairman,
House of Laity of the General Synod


“This clear statement properly recognises the primacy of biblical teaching with respect to marriage, and rightly calls Anglicans to reaffirm that teaching. In line with Scripture, our formularies are plain enough on the definition of marriage as a distinctively male- female union, and the statement reaffirms that definition while urging gracious, pastoral and Christ-like interaction with gay and lesbian people. It is both welcome and timely.”
The Revd Dr David Hilborn,
Principal, St. John’s College, Nottingham


“The church's response to the issues surrounding same-sex relationship is often fraught with difficulty. Many are nervous of being seen as bigoted and intolerant if they question moves to bless such relationships or call them marriage. This statement of Anglican teaching on marriage and sexuality will therefore be extremely helpful through its careful but clear witness to the biblical principles of both grace and truth. I have no hesitation in commending it.”
The Revd Stephen Kuhrt
Vicar of Christ Church, New Malden and Chair of Fulcrum


“This is a very helpful and relevant outline of Christian teaching from both the Bible and the historic foundational documents on which our Anglican Communion has been built.”
The Revd Jane Morris
Vicar of St. Gabriel’s, Cricklewood and Member of General Synod for London Diocese


“This is a clear and careful expression of Anglican teaching which should gain wide support. It speaks graciously into the current debate and irenically cuts through much of the ideology and acrimony in the media on this subject.”
The Revd Dr Ian Paul
Dean of Studies, St John’s College, Nottingham


“I commend this concise statement on Christian marriage. Particularly helpful is the grounding in the Prayer Book liturgy and collects which remind us that marriage is not purely private, but also public; not defined by society, but by God through his word; not irrelevant, because true marriage expresses God’s love and is to be received in the context of prayer and worship.”
The Revd Dr Simon Vibert
Vice Principal, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford


“A helpful explanation of the nature of marriage as it has always been understood by the church, and a reminder that the church is not at liberty to exceed the bounds set by Scripture.”
Mrs Alison Wynne
Member of General Synod for Blackburn Diocese


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          • Glorify God in Your Body
          • Studies on the Bible and Same-Sex Relationships
          • On why conservatives remain conservative
          • Guarding the Deposit
          • Apostolic Faith and Life
          • Why Issues of Human Sexuality are not Adiaphora
          • Other >
            • Review: Journeys in Grace and Truth
            • Critique: Pastoral Letter from the Bishops of the Church in Wales
            • A Response to 'The Wreck of Catholic Identity'
            • Review: A Way Forward
            • Review: This Holy Estate
            • Review: Theology of Marriage
            • Review: Study of Marriage
            • Critique: Pilling Report
            • Critique: Covenant and Calling
            • Review: More Perfect Union
        • Reconciliation >
          • Review: Living Reconciliation
        • Inclusion >
          • Biblical Inclusivity, Paul Perkins
      • Reviews >
        • Review: He Gave Us Stories
        • Review: The Widening Circle
        • Review: A Passion for Faithfulness
        • Review: A Call to Spiritual Reformation
        • Review: Good Disagreement
        • Review: Breaking the Silence on Spiritual Abuse
        • Review: The Cross of Christ
        • Review: The Clapham Sect
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        • St Matthias Day Statement
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