It’s time for the Church of England to drop the culture wars

Almost three thousand years ago the Prophet Amos asked ‘can two walk together except they be agreed?’ How can the Church of England, pragmatic and volunteer-led but with complex legal and cultural structures, stay meshed with its culturally incompatible overseas churches? What is its future?

Theo Hobson argues in this week’s Spectator that the C of E needs to find a third way in order to survive, affirming gay partnerships whilst simultaneously rejecting equal marriage.

Can this be done? If the deadlock Hobson describes arose from a frail incoherent compromise, Some Issues in Human Sexuality, how can more hand-wringing duplicity solve it?

The world has moved radically on since 1991. Education, smartphones and social media are driving rapid ubiquitous change. All over the world younger generations are challenging their parents’ cultural assumptions. In Britain a social tsunami has swept through national life. In education, healthcare, media, politics, police, law, armed services, homosexuality is now largely seen as phenomenon of nature, not an offence against it.