Editorial: Embodied Ministry: Gender, Sexuality and Formation

Critics within and beyond faith communities make the frequent accusation that people of faith do little else but talk about sex, when there are far more fundamental existential challenges to deal with. The paradox in this often valid criticism is that so much of the talking is “talking at” or “talking to”, and very little “talking with”. Rather than engaging in active listening, the temptation is to withdraw into an embarrassed silence or inarticulate rambling.

This long-felt experience prompted a member of the Centre for the Study of Christianity and Sexuality (CSCS) to erupt in frustration at an annual conference, some years ago. They raised the question: why was it that so many clergy and pastoral workers seemed to lack an ability to engage in honest conversation about sex, sexuality and gender, even assuming that they recognized the difference between these features of what it is to be human? How were these topics dealt with in recruitment and assessment of candidates for ordained and lay ministry across the denominations? Were there any quality standards established for the curricula of seminaries, theological colleges and lay ministerial training schemes? Appreciating the value of ongoing spiritual accompaniment for those engaged in pastoral ministry, was there any similar journeying with those on the life-long path to gender awareness and sexual maturity?

Responding to this challenge, in 2009 CSCS established a Theological Educators' Project, drawing people from across a range of denominations, to undertake a critical analysis of current practice. Theological educators have sought to identify models of good practice in church policies and procedures, candidates' recruitment, curriculum content and development, as well as models of ongoing formation. This work continues in contexts such as David Nixon and Susannah Cornwall's current “Mind the Gap” project, exploring sexualities and equalities education in Church of England theological education institutions (TEIs).

The CSCS Theological Educators' Project's birth coincided with various forms of “listening processes” being launched in Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, United Reformed and Roman Catholic contexts. While most of these have focused on lesbian, gay and bisexual issues, with an occasional nod to trans concerns, they often appear to deal with a symptom of a church's dysfunction rather than seriously examine any causal dissonance between faith, gender and sexuality. CSCS's focus has always been to develop a uniquely ecumenical reflection on all issues of human sexuality and gender identity. Thus a significant step in the Theological Educators' Project was the conference “Embodied Ministry: Gender, Sexuality and Formation”, held at Ripon College Cuddesdon in July 2014. The speakers included academic theologians, theological educators, clergy and others. Some of the material has been or will be published elsewhere (Thatcher, forthcoming 2017; Cornwall 2015; Beardsley drawing on Beardsley et al. 2010; Nixon 2013); some, like presentations by Bruce Kent, Brendan Callaghan, Sharon Ferguson, Martin Pendergast and Trish Fowlie, took the form of workshops or guided meditations not easily reproducible here. In this special issue we have drawn together some of the best of what was presented.

Shortly after the conference, the Revd Owen Dobson, a priest in the Diocese of London, wrote to the Church Times about his experience speaking to gay people who believed they had a vocation to ordained ministry in the Church of England. Dobson wrote,

The selection process seems designed to encourage secrecy and silence about sexuality. I have heard of diocesan directors of ordinands' saying to candidates that it was because they disclosed that they were in a relationship that they were turned away: if they'd have kept quiet, all would have been fine. The system wants people to lie … So many of them are left deeply troubled and compromised by a selection system that rewards dishonesty and denial. (Dobson 2014: 18)

The Church of England still requires those going forward for ordination to state that they will conduct their lives in accordance with Issues in Human Sexuality, which means that as clergy they “cannot claim the liberty to enter into sexually active homophile relationships” (House of Bishops 1991: 45). We personally know of more than one candidate who has been told that, although they currently meet all of Issues in Human Sexuality's requirements for gay-identified clergy (that is, not in sexually-active partnerships), they cannot be recommended to continue in the discernment process because they cannot promise that they will not enter into sexually-active relationships or same-sex marriages in the future. However, this 1991 document from the House of Bishops has no legal standing in Church of England canon law; was not discussed or assented to by the General Synod; and (of course) does not take account of the major legal and social changes that have occurred since its publication, notably the legalization of civil partnerships in England and Wales in 2005, and the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013.

Human sexuality is not just about lesbian and gay people, even if much of the theological writing and rhetoric purporting to address it focuses on them disproportionately. We are also personally aware of many heterosexual ordinands and clergy whose sex lives in no way accord with the expectation that sexual activity be reserved for marriage, and yet who are not scrutinized to anything like the same degree as their lesbian, gay and bisexual comrades. If the rationale is that unmarried heterosexual sex bears at least a resemblance to married heterosexual sex, and that those unmarried sexually-active clergy might reasonably be expected to get there eventually, this makes it even more grossly unfair that Church of England clergy are not currently permitted by the church authorities to marry their same-sex partners at all. In practice, those who are unmarried and sexually active may (as long as they are relatively discreet) proceed merrily in this way on the off-chance that, at some future time, they may decide to marry — as they are at perfect liberty to do. Those, on the other hand, who are gay and who would like to enter into permanent, covenantal marriage relationships may not licitly do so. They may enter civil partnerships, but only because these carry no “official” expectation that sexual activity is involved (and, indeed, those Church of England clergy and ordinands in them are “trusted” to remain celibate).

A broader consideration of sexuality and gender is being undertaken by the Roman Catholic Church at a global level. Its two-part Synod of Bishops in October 2014 and 2015, at the behest of Pope Francis, the Bishop of Rome, is trying to move beyond the realm of ideals and abstractions to address the concrete realities of the Church's members. The context for such reflection is to examine marriage and family concerns, and what kind of pastoral praxis and response is consistent with church teaching. While considering whether such renewed pastoral actions and changed attitudes can lead to an appropriate development of doctrine, it has become clear that no change of doctrine will be proclaimed from on high, by papal edict. This is not the “Francis style”. Divisions of opinion on the reappraisal of pastoral practice for divorced and remarried people, those in “irregular unions”, LGBT people and their families, similar to those that have beset the Anglican Communion, emerged at the October 2014 Synod session. Some, but not all, African and Asian Roman Catholic bishops aligned themselves with Eastern European conservatives, creating their own shibboleth of so-called “gender ideology”, in the fear that this heralded the end of the Christian family. A question for theological educators is how a renewed pastoral praxis can filter into the theological curricula of seminary and lay pastoral ministry training, to consolidate more open-minded pastoral approaches.

Those involved in the CSCS Theological Educators’ Project have been particularly concerned about the cognitive and spiritual dissonance created when questions of sex, gender and sexuality (especially sexual orientation) are not and cannot be fully integrated into the processes of discernment, formation and ongoing training of those in ordained ministry. Of course, specific circumstances vary between denominations, and even between dioceses, colleges or other jurisdictions within a given denomination. However, our sense has been that those who have been unable to reflect on the integration of their own sex, gender, sexuality and vocation are likely to face increased strains and challenges when called to minister to others in these areas. In some cases, the lack of capacity to reflect may be because the denomination in question does not officially allow that one may licitly be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender and a member of the clergy — so that it would be odd indeed to give space for prospective clergy to explore these things about themselves under the current dispensation. In others, it may be because there is simply too little space built into the formational process for issues of gender and sexuality to figure. The upshot is that, as group member and contributor to this issue, Carla Grosch-Miller, has commented:

We live in an ecclesiastical culture of sexual secrecy and shame which has disabled us from being able to deal directly with the issues. People come into training for ministry with firm views of the right and wrong of sexual behaviours, but with relatively little knowledge of the physiology and psychology of sexuality, of the contextual underpinning of biblical sexual ethics, or of the complexity in human relationships that makes them vulnerable to transgressing sexual boundaries. Little is done to assist ordinands or ministers to craft a healthy sexuality or to seek help when they need it. (Grosch-Miller 2008: 52)

Some of the articles in this issue address this specific concern. Grosch-Miller herself proposes a model of sexual-spiritual integration which brings embodied knowledge to the centre of relational encounter. In this way, she suggests, nuanced acknowledgements of vulnerability, power and desire might be given safe space in the process of ministerial formation and in the ongoing discipline of ministers’ and others’ lives via the graced development of moral agency.

Jan Berry also reflects on vulnerability and power, here in the context of pastoral boundaries. She problematizes Carter Heyward's critique of boundaries, but notes that a consequence of the rupturing of boundaries via exploitation and abuse can be increased openness to God. This challenging account concludes with an image of the Cross as a space where risk and vulnerability are contained and transformed.

Other articles in the special issue focus on pastoral encounters of more specific kinds. Rachel Mann's exploration of the potentials of trans-inclusive approaches to spiritual direction for subverting gender normativities is also alert to the tensions attached to the ceding of subjectivity in this context. She reflects on the double-edged nature of discourses of intimacy and exposure as explicated in Psalm 139 and its use in spiritual direction.

Nicola Slee suggests that the use of erotic images for God in prayer may be a specific vehicle for the more holistic integration of gender, sexuality and faith. It is in prayer that, she suggests, Christians may understand both their own embodiment and the divine incarnation as both concrete and irreducible, and non-ultimate. Finally, we have included a composite piece drawing together remarks made at the panel discussion on Gender and Sexuality in the Pastoral Encounter. Our thanks go to Carla Grosch-Miller, Sharon Ferguson and Brendan Callaghan for writing up their oral contributions.

The work in this area is far from finished, but this special issue represents some valuable contributions to the conversation. We are grateful to all the contributors for their hard work and generous collaboration, and hope that others will find the articles here a useful stimulus for further discussion.

Notes on contributors

Susannah Cornwall is Advanced Research Fellow in Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter, and Director of EXCEPT (Exeter Centre for Ethics and Practical Theology). She is the author of Sex and Uncertainty in the Body of Christ: Intersex Conditions and Christian Theology (Routledge, 2010); Controversies in Queer Theology (SCM, 2011); and Theology and Sexuality (SCM, 2013). She is the editor of Intersex, Theology, and the Bible: Troubling Bodies in Church, Text and Society (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015); and (with John Bradbury) of Thinking Again About Marriage: Key Theological Questions (SCM, forthcoming 2016).

Correspondence to: Susannah Cornwall. Email: [email protected]

Martin Pendergast is chair of the Centre for the Study of Christianity and Sexuality. He was a founder member of the Roman Catholic Caucus of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement. He was a member of the Catholic Bishops Conference Social Welfare Committee, and a faith-advisory member of the Government’s Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy. He is a qualified social worker, having managed child and family social work at St Thomas’ Hospital, London, where he specialized in assessment and treatment of child sexual abuse and developed some of the first social services for people with HIV/AIDS. He has theology degrees from Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University and Bristol University.