Canon Chris Sugden, the Chair of Anglican Mainstream, has said that the Church of England’s decision to bless same-sex relationships “was a bridge too far”.
In a conversation with Tony Rucinski, Chief Executive of the Coalition for Marriage, Canon Sugden spoke of his love for the Anglican church and its traditional “broad church” approach, under which Anglo-Catholics, evangelicals and liberals can all share the same denominational tent.
Sugden, who has also been a member of the General Synod and was at the founding of GAFCON in Jerusalem in 2008, said that elements of the Church of England were determined to silence the views of those who did not agree with pro-LGBT ideological views.
As evidence he cited an incident at the Synod in York earlier this year. A church member booked a fringe meeting during which formerly homosexual individuals could share their testimony and conversion to heterosexuality.
In response 82 other members wrote letters of complaint to the archbishops, demanding an explanation for why such a meeting had been approved. Although the archbishops did not ban the event, they did consider cancelling it.
A stand and public display informing people of the event at the Synod was denied due to fears that appearing to endorse such an event ran counter to a Synod vote in 2017, in which the Church supported a ban on conversion practices.
Sometimes opposition is more forthright. According to Sugden, stepping out of line with the prevailing orthodoxy means “you are not only wrong, but you should be silenced” and that there is no forgiveness for those who transgress.
Sugden said he was opposed to government plans to ban abusive conversion practices, saying the core of the issue is the question of whether “we are made male and female or not”.
If we are not male and female, Sugden argues, then a whole host of other societal assumptions go out the window, including marriage as it has been traditionally known, the right of children to a mother and father, and, further down the line, the society that was built by such families.
