> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://violet-wood.ghost.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Love and hate - URL: https://violet-wood.ghost.io/love-and-hate/ - Published: 2026-08-16T18:27:05.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-17T07:15:53.000Z - Author: Violet Wood - Tags: Christianity, Gender If you live in a democratic society, and the governing body makes a decision that you don’t like, what can you do? There are various options: (1) You can accept it, while seeking protection for your own views. (2) You can protest the decision and seek it to change it through argument and persuasion. (3) You can reject it and throw your toys out of the pram. (4) You can leave the jurisdiction and move to some other place where the decisions are more to your liking. Which course do you think was taken by a prominent Anglican church and its associates? Over the past few years, the Church of England has been engaged in a process which attempts to make provision for church members who are in same-sex relationships, or who regard themselves as part of the LGBTQIA+ community in some more general sense, while at the same time respecting the views of those who object on grounds of conscience. The Living in Love and Faith project has developed gradually through consultation and decision-making at all the levels of church governance. In 2024, the governing body voted by a majority to enable stand-alone services for same-sex couples, to provide pastoral reassurance for the minority of objectors, and to develop new pastoral guidance. The intention was to bring detailed proposals back to the governing body early in 2025. A coalition of evangelical churches and organisations, led by St Helen’s Bishopsgate and its rector, William Taylor, believes that the governing body of the Church of England has now crossed a red line. There is a detailed explanation of their views on the St Helen’s website in a video entitled Commissioning service (online [here](https://www.st-helens.org.uk/about/announcements/cofe/?ref=violet-wood.ghost.io), look for video on Commissioning service 24 July 2024). Their main points are: - The governing body has departed from the scriptural message in this area of gender and sexuality. - St Helen’s Bishopsgate therefore intends to make its own arrangements within the Church of England to enable scripturally-faithful churches to continue to operate at a distance. - These arrangements amount to the creation of a separate province within the Anglican communion, with its own leadership and governance structures. - To start the process, these evangelical churches have commissioned seven leaders of the future who will minister in these faithful churches, take part in unofficial bread and wine sharing events, and (aspirationally) undergo ordination in future. - These churches will seek separate oversight within the Anglican communion. It’s not clear whether this will be through a new generation of flying bishops within the Church of England, or through supervision by other member churches in the Anglican communion. - These churches will not longer pay the parish share requested by their dioceses. To justify their position, St Helen’s seeks to undermine the legitimacy of the General Synod decision on the basis that it was taken by a ‘slim majority’ – although in a democracy, a slim majority is still a majority. Also they claim that their position is shared by 85% of the global Anglican communion. They might be right about that. Homophobia is rampant in the Global South. But each member of the Anglican communion is constitutionally separate and self-governing. If you are within the jurisdiction of the Church of England, the decisions that affect how you operate are those taken by the governing body of the Church of England. The St Helen’s video combines coldness and certainty. These churches believe that the truth on matters of gender and sexuality is all on their side. So they do not see any point in continuing with the nuanced, gradual and broadly-inclusive approach that the Church of England has been taking over the past seven years or so. It is also interesting that the seven leaders commissioned at the recent service are all men. The video does not make anything of this. What message does this send to the female ministers who have served in the Church of England in the 30 years since the Church decided (by a majority) to enable their ordination to go ahead? St Helen’s and its associates have effectively broken from the official Church of England. The consistent course would be to secede completely. They should really go and play in another part of the playground. Arguably the leadership of the Church of England should accept that a split is inevitable and facilitate its progress in the least painful way possible. As the poet WB Yeats famously stated in his poem The Second Coming: 'Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.' Instead, these churches are choosing to remain within the Church of England while rejecting its decisions and withholding financial support. They hope eventually to succeed through sheer weight of numbers in renewing the Church from within. Ultimately they would like everyone to share their point of view – or go away and leave them in charge. How should inclusive churches respond to this gospel of hate? The only good way is by preaching a gospel of love. This would recognise that God’s embrace holds all his people regardless of their gender and sexuality. It would reflect the point made by the 19th century theologian FD Maurice and others that people are mostly right in what they affirm and wrong in what they deny. Inclusive churches should also continue to engage in the democratic processes and structures of the Church of England governance arrangements. This would say to their recalcitrant opponents that we will play by the rules of the game and we will respect the outcome – even if you don’t. And we will always choose love over hate. This is the Christian way. For a loving Christian response to the St Helen’s video, see [the sermon by Lucy Winkett](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXH167654dg&list=PLHRXpP0Gqz%5F3XbPSRNmSslXuTWQ64IqtN&index=97&ref=violet-wood.ghost.io) (Rector of St James’s Piccadilly) on 4 August 2024 which was the Tenth Sunday after Trinity, entitled ‘Faith in her future: Empowering women and girls to lead’.