Living in Love and Faith: The Course: A 5-session course for groups

I like this course, we used it in our small groups and found it helpful to have discussions. It was impactful and with the videos to follow helped through whole group see what impact the church and its community has.

Commissioned and led by the Bishops of the Church of England, ‘Living in Love and Faith’ (LLF) celebrates the Christian good news with profundity looking at what the Bible, Church tradition and contemporary Christian experience have to say about sexuality alongside the social and biological sciences. There is a celebration of marriage, friendship, celibacy and a hard headed, largehearted, unprescriptive engagement with the issues of same sex marriage and gender fluidity represented through life stories. The book is accompanied by materials for group study including a video and podcast. The Bishops describe the gulf between church and society and challenge to teaching that reserves sex to heterosexual marriage set forth by them most recently in 1991. LLF clarifies how Anglicans see authority in scripture, tradition (including natural law) and Christian experience. This ‘three-legged stool’ is presented, with the associated balancing act, explaining the heated divisions in the Church provoked, and anticipated set back to ecumenical partnership, in any adoption of same-sex marriage. LLF steers evenly through issues with intellectual and spiritual rigour helped by repeated and fair presentations of rival positions in the Church of England. Readers are invited to eavesdrop on a series of conversations at the end of the book between those who disagree on issues of sexuality and check whether they can identify with contributors including celibate and sexually active gays and trans gender folk. With echoes of the ordination of women debate the authors conclude ‘we see an ongoing and evolving argument in Anglican history about the proper answer to these questions, with different sides marshalling the evidence of Anglican history in different ways, to suit their differing answers’. The future will tell and meanwhile this resource serves to settle misinformation and encourage church members to relate more truthfully in love and faith.

I am undecided on the LLF issue but lean mostly towards agreeing with same-sex marriages within the church and this book/course promised to be a balanced and inclusive exploration of identity, sexuality, relationships, and marriage within the Church of England. Unfortunately, it falls short in several critical areas, leaving me quite disappointed.The course is marketed as a tool to help all sides of the debate understand each other better. However, it's clear that there's a particular agenda at play here. Despite the promise of balanced discussion, the course disproportionately favours the arguments in support of same-sex marriages, giving very little attention to the counterarguments. This lack of balance makes the course feel biased and incomplete and plays greatly into 'confirmation bias'.One of the most frustrating aspects is the way the course creators seem to underestimate the intelligence of us, their audience. The materials present a narrow perspective, almost assuming that participants can't handle a more nuanced and honest debate. This approach feels patronising and undermines the course's credibility.If, like me, you're looking to be intellectually honest about the issue the church faces by trying to understand the other side better, this is not for you (unless you're against same-sex marriage, then this might be for you). Poor book/course.

Everything in this book is in the course- you don’t need it.The course itself? Challenging & rather depressing for anyone remotely LGBTQ supportive. It seems prejudicial from the outset.

Raises difficult issue of discrimination within the Christian community and church, challenges distorted thinking and attitudes against the Bible records and teaching.

Excellent