On 15 October 2025 the Church of England’s House of Bishops issued a statement explaining that at its recent meeting it had made “a series of key decisions on the future direction of the Church of England’s Living in Love and Faith process”.
The Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process is the process which began in 2017 to consider whether it would be right for the Church of England to bless same-sex relationships, bless or celebrate same-sex marriages, and permit those in same-sex relationships to be ordained.
This process has been led by the House of Bishops, which is a group within the Church of England’s General Synod consisting of the Church’s diocesan bishops, the Bishop of Dover (who functions at the diocesan bishop in the Diocese of Canterbury), nine elected suffragan bishops and the Bishop to the Armed Forces, that has a particular responsibility for matters to do with the Church of England’s doctrine, liturgy and ministry.
At its October meeting the House of Bishops considered the detailed advice which it had received from the Church of England’s legal office and its Faith and Order Commission, which basically said that under Church law the introduction of ‘stand-alone’ services to bless same-sex civil marriages and permitting those in same-sex relationships to be ordained were both things that could not be introduced simply by a decision of the bishops, but required a formal legal process of approval involving both the General Synod and the United Kingdom Parliament.
In the light of this advice, the bishops’ statement declared that they had “agreed in principle that both bespoke service and clergy same-sex marriage would need formal synodical and legislative processes to be completed before they could be permitted”.
The bishops further declared that plans for the introduction of ‘Delegated Episcopal Ministry’ - under which those opposed to the blessing of same-sex relationships, and the ordination of those in them, would have received ministry from conservative bishops who shared their convictions - would be put on hold because nothing in the Church of England’s practice was going to change in the immediate future.
The bishops also explained that final decisions about the matters they had discussed would be made at their next meeting in December.
The December 2025 statement by the House of Bishops
The next meeting of the House of Bishops duly took place on 16 December and after it the bishops issued a further statement which ran as follows:
“At a meeting at Lambeth Palace in London today, bishops discussed a series of decisions taken in principle on the direction of LLF at their last meeting in October.
“While those decisions were not contested, the bishops identified some areas where further clarification is needed and agreed to continue work on a letter to the Church summarising LLF and setting out an agreed position.
“Bishops recognised the deep hurt, particularly to LGBTQI+ people, as a result of those decisions.
“The House will meet again in January to finalise the text of the letter – which will take the form of a statement from the House.
“The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, who chairs the LLF Programme Board, said: ‘Although we recognise that having not set out a final decision today may add to the frustration and distress many people are feeling, it is important we take proper care and time on this. That is needed.
“We remain on course to bring proposals to Synod for consideration in February.’”
What we learn from these two statements
These statements highlight several issues in relation to the LLF process
1. The LLF process is in disarray
It is clear to anyone who has been following the LLF process that it is in disarray.
The bishops had been proposing to introduce stand-alone services of blessing and the ordination of those in same-sex relationships on their own authority, in the same way that the existing Prayers of Love and Faith used for the blessing of same-sex couples in normal church services were introduced on the authority of the bishops alone (although with the support of a small majority in General Synod). As indicated above, the advice received by the bishops said that this way forward would not be legally permissible, but that a formal synodical and parliamentary process needed to be followed instead.
Furthermore, the fact that the bishops were unable to make a final decision about the matter in December as promised highlights the existence of continuing divisions in the House of Bishops about the right way to act in the light of this advice.
The reality is that the House is split not only on the issue of whether the blessing of same-sex marriages and the ordination of same-sex marriages is theologically legitimate, but also about what the way forward for the Church of England should be on these matters and, in particular, what provision (if any) should be made for those conservative clergy and laity in the Church of England who cannot not in good conscience support any move in a liberal direction.
What all this means is that while it had been hoped that the LLF process would be concluded during the five-year term of the current General Synod (which comes to an end in July), it is now clear that this will not happen. Any conclusion to the process will take place during the life of next General Synod at the earliest.
2. The LLF process will continue
Contrary to the fears expressed by some liberals, and the hopes expressed by some conservatives, it is also clear that the LLF process will continue (even if it is rebranded as something else). The majority in the House of Bishops, led by the present Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, and the incoming Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mulllally, are determined to press ahead with introducing standalone services of blessing and the ordination of those in same-sex relationships for a number of reasons: (a) they believe it is the right thing to do, (b) it is what General Synod has voted for, (c) they believe the Church of England will become a laughing stock if the process in which so much money and effort has been invested is simply abandoned and (d) they believe the Church of England will lose all credibility in modern British society if it is perceived to be hostile to gay and lesbian people and their relationships.
The LLF process is therefore set to continue, with the legislation called for in the advice given to the House of Bishops probably being introduced in the General Synod in February 2028 and the legal process taking several years after that.
What is not clear is what bishops will do about church discipline in the meanwhile. It is an open secret that standalone services of blessing are already being performed in Church of England churches (the vicar of Holy Trinity Guildford, Simon Butler, publicly admitted as much in a recent Radio 4 interview) and that there are clergy in same-sex sexual relationships. The temptation on the liberal side will be to try to create ‘facts on the ground’ by being increasingly public about such matters and challenging the bishops to try to stop them. If the bishops do this they will face accusations of ‘homophobia’ and if they don’t, conservatives will be increasingly tempted either to look for alternative forms of episcopal oversight or to abandon the Church of England altogether.
3. The Church of England is no longer seriously interested in ecumenism
Canon A8 of the Church of England’s Canon Law declares:
“Forasmuch as the Church of Christ has for a long time past been distressed by separations and schisms among Christian men, so that the unity for which our Lord prayed is impaired and the witness to his gospel is grievously hindered, it is the duty of clergy and people to do their utmost not only to avoid occasions of strife but also to seek in penitence and brotherly charity to heal such divisions.”
In line with this Canon, the Church of England has historically expended a lot of time and effort seeking to foster and maintain ever increasing agreement on matters of faith and order with other Christian churches. I know this because for thirteen years I worked on ecumenical faith and order matters for the Church of England’s Council for Christian Unity.
Now, however, any attempt to maintain ecumenical agreement on matters of faith and order appears to have gone by the board. The bishops and others on the General Synod must know that the vast majority of Christians around the world, including the vast majority of Anglicans, have held, and continue to hold, that God has instituted marriage to be a relationship between two people of the opposite sex and that all sexual activity outside marriage thus defined is sin. However, the Church of England has decided that this fact is unimportant. It will make its own decision about marriage and sexuality without any reference to the thinking of any other part of the body of Christ.
This means that seeking in ‘penitence and brotherly love’ to heal the divisions within the Christian Church has now gone by the board. The Church of England has ceased to care what other Christians think. It is in effect saying to other members of the body ‘I have no need of you’ (1 Corinthians 12:21).
4. The Church of England is no longer seriously interested in theology
When the Church of England made its final decision to ordain women as bishops in 2014 it offered no theological explanation as to how it knew this decision was in accordance with the will of God and to this day there is no statement that says ‘we believe it is theologically right for women to be bishops because…’ Exactly the same pattern is recurring in the case of the current proposals to bless same-sex relationships and ordain those in them. Neither the House of Bishops nor any other representative Church of England body has said ‘we know that going down this path is God’s will because…’
It appears that what matters is simply what a majority in the House of Bishops or the General Synod wants and the problem with this approach is that it is a basic theological mistake to identify the will of the majority with the will of God. As the sixteenth century Anglican apologist John Jewel noted in his Apology of the Church of England “…there was the greatest consent that might be amongst them that worshipped the golden calf and among them that with one voice jointly cried out against our Saviour Jesu Christ, ‘Crucify him.’”
5. The Achilles heel of the LLF process
The basis of the current phase of the LLF process is the motion passed by General Synod on 9 February 2023 which declared among other things that Synod endorsed:
“… the decision of the College and House of Bishops not to propose any change to the doctrine of marriage, and their intention that the final version of the Prayers of Love and Faith should not be contrary to, or indicative of, a departure from the doctrine of the Church of England.”
The Achilles heel of the current process is that the liberal agenda which underpins it goes against what was agreed by Synod in that it involves a departure from, rather than a development of, the doctrine of the Church of England.
The doctrine of the Church of England (in line with the historic doctrine of the Christian Church as a whole) is that all forms of sexual activity outside heterosexual marriage are forms of the sin of fornication which all Christians are called to avoid committing (and for which those Christians who have committed it are called to repent, confess and receive absolution as they would with all other forms of sin).
What is currently being proposed is not a development of this doctrine but a departure from it (it is not legitimate to bless fornication or ordain those who are committing it) and is therefore not even in accordance with what General Synod authorised. If you are interest in more on this, I have developed this last point in detail in my new book Noviter Non Nova – the development of doctrine and the Church of England debate about marriage and sexuality, published by Gilead Books.
