Thread by @RevCBeckett

1/ Not responded to the #CofE's latest #statement before now because I felt it as a body blow - a blow to those members of the #body of #Christ who God gave me as siblings & with whom I am united, whose pain echoes in me though it is not directly my own - & I needed to breathe...

2/ The #statement is thin paper stretched over a seething mass of different, deeply held #identities, opinions, lives & #loves that stand in #opposition to one another, yet somehow mysteriously #united in #Christ. There are #cracks we cannot paper over, divides staggeringly deep.

3/ I am really hoping this #lawyerly #statement from the church was just a 'holding statement' till the proper review that is coming, made because the law on civil #marriage changing pushed them into saying something because clergy would need guidance straight away..I am hoping..

4/ How can you stay #CofE? friends ask. I'm reminded of #Christ pinned between 2 thieves, granting #hope & enduring #abuses. #Jesus torn & #stretched, who in love chose not to come down from the #cross. I think of my calling to take up my cross & #follow. Easy wasn't promised me.

5/ I stay because Christ stays. For those who hate, not to enable abuse but to call it out as distinct from love. For those who love, that they may not stand alone against hate. For those trying to be faithful, that they may may not feel rejected for still journeying & searching.

6/ My #LGBTQI+ friends, I understand if you feel you can't #stay, will mourn if you go, will miss your unique light, but will understand. I will drive myself under the door as a wedge to keep it open because I believe in your return. I stay because this is my #church & yours too.

7/ Loved friends who cannot accept my other loved friends' mode of life, I will still hold both your hands, however thin it stretches me. Abandonment does not beget #love. Let us search our hearts & the #Scriptures & the book of #spirit-filled lives together. Let us differ kindly

8/ I stay b/c if I am a face of #welcome for even one person, on whatever side of whatever debate, who feels #unloved by God or unwelcomed, it is enough. No-one is beyond the #love of #God. I realise of course it is 'easy' for me to say this b/c I am not carrying wounds right now

9/ & I stay to be a 'safe' person for those carrying #hurt & #anger to shout at, if they need to, cry with if they need to. I am so #sorry this #statement landed in people's lives without warning causing so much hurt, but sense it is a cautious #waymark, not a destination.

10/ Never been so aware that there is #TheologicalPrivilege as well as #WhitePrivilege & I benefit from both, while other #voices require amplification. Longing for @greenbelt & in the meantime living the division in sadness & faith b/c I #love the #CofE.

11/ To clarify: CofE is not the 'one true way' - that's Christ - it is one expression among many of the gathered people of God. If this makes you leave it, that's not the same as walking away from God/ the body of Christ. Christ plays in ten thousand places. But you'll be missed.