Almost two-and-a-half years after Braintree Deanery passed the 'Brentwood Resolution', it has finally reached the agenda of the Chelmsford Diocesan Synod and will be discussed on the 10th November. The resolution, as it will be discussed by Synod, is as below. Following the gathering at Brentwood in early 2005 that gave the resolution its name, at least twenty eight PCCs in the diocese passed the resolution and wrote to the bishops accordingly.
The Brentwood/Braintree Resolution
“This Diocesan Synod
1. welcomes the affirmation in the Ordinal that bishops are to study the Scriptures and to pray for a true understanding of them, so that they may be able to teach and exhort the Church with wholesome doctrine and to withstand and convince those who hold otherwise.
2. notes that:
a. at the 1998 Lambeth Conference, the bishops of the Anglican Communion overwhelmingly endorsed Resolution 1.10 on human sexuality.
b. Resolution 1.10 advocates lifelong faithfulness within marriage and abstinence for those who are not called to marriage as being in accordance with what Scripture teaches about human sexuality (1.10.2).
c. Resolution 1.10 opposes homosexual practice, the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions and the ordaining of those involved in same gender unions as being incompatible with what Scripture teaches about human sexuality (1.10.4, 5).
d. Resolution 1.10 commits the Church to listen to the experience of homosexual persons (1.10.3), and to offer pastoral care, moral direction and God’s transforming power for their lives and relationships, whilst assuring them that they are loved by God and that all baptised and believing persons are full members of the Body of Christ (1.10.3).
e. At their meeting at Dromantine in March 2005, the Primates of the Anglican Communion pledged themselves afresh to Resolution 1.10 in its entirety (Dromantine Communiqué paragraph 17).
3. recognizes that the transforming power of God to wash, sanctify and justify all people can only be offered when the moral direction of the Church warns people against being deceived about their situation (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).
4. therefore:
calls upon all the bishops in the Diocese of Chelmsford to teach as true and wholesome doctrine what is identified in Resolution 1.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference as being in accordance with Scripture.
calls upon them to refute and correct, both privately and publicly, those who advocate what is identified in Resolution 1.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference as being incompatible with Scripture.
urges the said bishops to set before all those who hold or seek a licensed ministry in this diocese, but who feel unable to uphold what is affirmed in Resolution 1.10, the need to consider carefully whether they are truly called according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ to such an office in this Church at the present time.
5. mandates the Secretary of this Diocesan Synod to write forthwith to Honorary Assistant Bishop John Ball (not being a member of this Synod), advising him of the passage of this motion and of the votes recorded.”
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