Faith Matters: God is love and those who live in love live in God

Over the past seven years, the Church of England has been engaged in a challenging process known as Living in Love and Faith or LLF for short, involving Christian teaching and learning about identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage. In my role as the Bishop’s Liaison Officer for the LGBTQI communities, I have held meetings with others across the theological spectrum, many of whom share different views to me. Some people feel the church has gone too far, while others feel it has not gone far enough. My aim has always been to build trust and relationship despite our differences.

We may never agree - particularly on same-sex marriage, which is a thorny issue - but I do believe we can still work together and agree on the primacy of the Gospel.

Relationships with Christians and others with whom we disagree are worth investing in; we can build trust and relationship in a spirit of generous hospitality. It’s about finding ways to disagree well.

On Maundy Thursday, it is the tradition in my parish that the priest washes the feet of some of the members of the congregation and this year I used this lovely poem by the Jesuit priest, James Quinn:

Here in Christ we gather, love of Christ our calling.Christ, our love, is with us, gladness be his greeting.Let us fear him, yes, and love him, God eternal.Loving him, let each love Christ in all his brothers – and sisters.

Ubi caritasGod is love, and where true love isGod himself is there.

Love is costly; it involves listening, taking risks and becoming vulnerable in another’s presence, and putting away past prejudices.

Through Baptism, God comes to live in us, turning that external expression of his love on the Cross into something internal that wells up within us so that we may know that love, and thus can truly love ourselves. Loving ourselves, then, opens the way for us to love others.

In society and in the Church, we are facing a whole load of fear, fear of difference, fear of change, fear of loss and fear of what we do not understand. It bubbles away under the surface and can find expression in verbal abuse that can so easily spill over into hate crime.

Hate crime against LGBTQI people, often unreported, is rising significantly, despite all the protections in a more inclusive society. There is a long way to go.

The love of God is a crucified love – but the failure to love our brothers and sisters in Christ, in all our differences, undermines the Gospel and betrays our mission. That great mystic, Julian of Norwich wrote – “If I look at myself alone, I am nothing, but when I look at my fellow Christians joined together in love, I have hope”.

Dates for your diary

A Church Near You

Keep up to speed with all that is going on in your local vicinity through this valuable website.

Saturday 14 September, Sussex Ride & Stride

The Annual Ride & Stride is a fun day for everyone to explore some of Sussex's unique historic buildings and, by so doing, raise money for the church or chapel of your choice as well as for the Sussex Historic Churches Trust. For more information, do visit the Trust's website: https://www.sussexhistoricchurchestrust.org.uk/sussex_ride_and_stride.html.