This is Google's cache of http://changingattitude.org.uk/archives/8400. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on Jan 23, 2015 10:31:06 GMT. The current page could have changed in the meantime. Learn more Tip: To quickly find your search term on this page, press Ctrl+F or ⌘-F (Mac) and use the find bar. Text-only version  Contact Home About Us Events Blogs Campaigns Bookshop   Find a Church, Group or Retreat Resources Donate You are here: Home > Blogs > Colin Coward > Shared Conversations – the LGBTI Anglican Coalition meet with David Porter Shared Conversations – the LGBTI Anglican Coalition meet with David Porter Colin Coward, January 22nd, 2015 — Be Members of the LGBTI Anglican Coalition met with David Porter, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Director for Reconciliation at Lambeth Palace on Tuesday. David was generous with his time and we were there for over an hour and a half. Easily create high-quality PDFs from your web pages - get a business license! David began by outlining the history which has brought us to where we are from the much more optimistic beginnings nearly a year ago. It began with the Pilling Report which was struggling to land (as he put it) at the time he was appointed. The Pilling group was an ill-conceived exercise in the first place, ill-conceived in part because formulated by a male only group initially. It was marked by a lack of coherence and incompetence in the Church. David expressed the hope that things are changing and that we are getting to a more emotionally and relationally intelligent place. I suspect all of us present were profoundly reassured to hear this. Lambeth Palace has effectively been buying time (which some of us experience as kicking the LGBTI issue into the long grass yet again). Time has been needed to get heads around difficult internal Church ‘stuff’ – hence the decision to spend the first two years of Archbishop Justin’s archiepiscopate meeting every Primate in the Communion. David then outlined the somewhat chaotic process by which the Conversations have been developed, resulting in groupings of between 3 and 5 dioceses with 12 or 10 participants from each. There was pressure from Church House to start the Conversations more quickly and compromise was arrived at. David knew he needed a longer period to prepare. The question being addressed Given the differences we are dealing with in the Church of England, David thought the Conversations should have addressed the question: How do we stay together? He lost the argument to a more missiological question: Given the changes in English culture, how should the Church respond? And given there is no consensus in the Church, how does the Church respond? This is not a decision-making process but is about ecclesiology and mission given the diverse and contradictory responses to the issue of sexuality and gender in the Church. The College of Bishops trial the process Moving on to the College of Bishops meeting in September when the Shared Conversation process was trialled, David said it didn’t work as hoped because the culture of good facilitation met the culture of the College of Bishops and some of the old school bishops refused to play ball. Good process hit the dysfunctional nature of the Church of England. Easily create high-quality PDFs from your web pages - get a business license! The Church of England is the primary problem Province for the Anglican Communion because the other Provinces no longer really know what the Church of England is. The bishops only allowed a day and a half for the process and ran out of time. Now the regional Conversations will involve 2 nights away to ensure proper process. The intention is to have equal numbers of laity and clergy and men and women, with 20% under 30 and a minimum of two who are openly LGBT or I, together representing the known views around the diocese. David discovered that some bishops needed to ask him what the variety of views in their diocese might be! Planning for fracture The intention is to change the tone of the conversation and take some of the toxicity out of it, acknowledging that there is no agreement between, say, us and Reform. David assumes there will be a fracture and when it happens, it will be small and done with profound sadness, with a measure of grace, disagreeing well. The Conversations are a process in which it is hoped to find grace in each other where there are profound disagreements. Maybe 80% of the C of E will hold together with fractures at either end of the spectrum. Other initiatives welcome David hoped that people at the grass roots wouldn’t limit the possibilities to the regional Conversations, answering a question that CA people have raised. He would welcome a spontaneous outbreak of conversations at every level – but the Church of England doesn’t seem to do spontaneous, he reflected! He encouraged us to create other conversations – all are legitimate at whatever level. Where do we go from here? A regional advisory group is being formed, composed of one representative, probably a bishop or senior. Part of the purpose of this group seems to be to reassure the rump of bishops who still don’t want to engage with the process. And a Reference Group is being formed, 14 people, 4 pro-LGBTI, 4 conservative, 4 non-aligned middle ground and 2 design group members. They will share information and receive feed-back from the Conversations, learning from each one and making adjustments. Easily create high-quality PDFs from your web pages - get a business license! David believes the General Synod can’t put off a debate and vote on the core issues affecting the place of LGBTI people in the Church of England beyond the February 2017 meeting. This for me was the most significant new piece information I gained on Tuesday. David does not control the timetable or agenda of General Synod but he does have direct authority from the Archbishop of Canterbury, so this ambition may well be realised. What else? Members of the Coalition had wanted to know whether the proceedings would be recorded and reported back to evolve a body of wisdom. Getting an organic process going in the Church of England is very difficult, David noted. The Facilitator team may well write a reflective commentary at the end and may or may not go beyond this. The Mutual Conversation process is NOT a decision-making process in the Church of England. There IS going to be change at General Synod and secretariat level. The coming Synod elections will be fought on this platform. There are still too many unknowns, and it’s hard to identify the moment at which something reaches a catalytic point. There will be five Conversations before July 2015, four more before the end of the year and the remainder in early 2016. Filed Under: Colin Coward Tagged With: Shared Conversations About Colin Coward The Revd Colin Coward, Director of Changing Attitude, is a priest and psychotherapist. He ministered for 19 years in inner-city parishes in the Diocese of Southwark. He now lives near Devizes, Wiltshire, and is actively involved in his local church. Leave a Reply Easily create high-quality PDFs from your web pages - get a business license! Your email address will not be published. Name Email Website Comment You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> Easily create high-quality PDFs from your web pages - get a business license! POST COMMENT Email newsletter First Name... Email address GO Twitter If there's anything else we can help with we will indeed try :) Yesterday at 12:22 pm Participating in the mutual conversations process. Our thoughts after Tues meeting with David Porter. http://t.co/t0kz70yMsE Yesterday at 12:21 pm Honest & helpful stuff from David Porter this afternoon. Lots to think about... Our work continues! Easily create high-quality PDFs from your web pages - get a business license! http://t.co/uesrIG0zZb January 20th, 2015 7:10 pm Copyright 2014 Changing Attitude. | Easily create high-quality PDFs from your web pages - get a business license! Site by Charity & Biscuits