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In new pastoral guidance, published on 11 December, the CofE has encouraged its clergy to create baptism-style ceremonies for transgender people to welcome them into the Anglican faith.

The guidance, approved by the House of Bishops, advises referring to transgender people by their new name and also details how elements including water and oil can be incorporated into the service, though it stops short of being a baptism.

en staff

Date posted: 1 Nov 2020

Parents need to ‘wake up’ to what their children are being taught in sex education lessons, an ethical think tank is warning.

The Values Foundation (TVF) – which seeks to uphold the ‘centrality of faith and traditional family values in British education’ – was speaking to Evangelicals Now in the same week the government clarified its position on transgender ideology in the classroom.

Hate crime law which could see people criminalised for things said in their own homes is on the verge of coming a step closer in Scotland, with hopes expressed by the Law Commission that England and Wales will follow suit.

MSPs will vote on whether or not to proceed with the controversial Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill in December. The proposed legislation has united churches, secular groups, comedians and the police in opposition to all or parts of it.

The Church of England has published a new set of resources called Living in Love & Faith (LLF) looking at marriage, sexuality and transgender issues.

Andrew Goddard reports:

en staff

Date posted: 1 Aug 2020

It was reported in June that the UK government intends to drop plans for allowing people who claim to be transgender to self-identify as such.

This proposal was first mooted by the government in 2018 (en September 2018). The result of the consultation has never been published*.

en staff

Date posted: 1 Aug 2020

In June, Asda sent an email to customers with information on diversity that included links to a book containing an account of a child involved in oral sex with an older person from an organisation which uses slogans linked to paedophiles.

After an outcry on Twitter about the materials produced by Diversity Role Models (DRM), Baroness Nicholson, a prolific tweeter and active member of the House of Lords contacted the CEO of ASDA, Roger Burnley. This resulted in both Asda issuing an apology, and DRM removing some of what it cited as ‘misinterpreted’ materials from the packs, which Asda said was at its request.

In April, the Crown Prosecution Service pulled its LGBT hate crime guidance for schools following a legal challenge by a 14-year-old girl.

The guidance warned schools they could face legal action if they do not allow transgender pupils to use the toilets and changing rooms of their choice. It also claimed that children could be guilty of a hate crime for ‘rejecting someone’, ‘not wanting to work with them’ or excluding them from a friendship group.

There’s a mighty argument brewing in Scotland over free speech. With a global pandemic going on, you might think the Scottish Government was too busy with its response to that to be introducing controversial new legislation. But the coronavirus has not stopped the Justice Secretary from pushing ahead with plans to remove Scotland’s old blasphemy laws and replace them with new hate crime laws.

The new Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill removes the centuries-old Scottish blasphemy laws and replaces them with new legislation.

A High Court judge ruled in February that police acted unlawfully in their investigation into so-called ‘transphobic’ tweets, and suggested there was a creeping Orwellianism at work.

Humberside constabulary visited former policeman Harry Miller’s workplace after a complaint was made about tweets he sent challenging transgenderism. Miller founded the organisation ‘Fair Cop’ to challenge the police’s actions, arguing that the recording of non-crime ‘hate incidents’ was unlawful and that the police had breached his freedom of expression.

At the end of January it was reported that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) kept a document to deal with LBGT bulling and hate crimes in schools from public view.

The CPS claimed that due to the content involving ‘real life’ stories that the document was not initially given a wider audience beyond teaching staff who could access the materials (if they registered with the CPS). The CPS would not have included details that could identify a child to teachers. This appeared to be an excuse to keep a controversial document away from the eyes of parents. This is in keeping with the UNESCO suggestions of 2018 (see en January 2020).

The NHS trust which runs the Royal Sussex Hospital apologised to a rape survivor for including her letter requesting a female-born medic for a breast-screening appointment as an example of transphobia, it was reported in late 2019.

Gay-rights campaigner Clare Dimyon requested a natal female to perform a mammogram for her in 2018. In August 2019, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust published its new trans policy. It included the letter as an example of ‘highly discriminatory’ correspondence from patients which should be referred to the hospital’s equality diversity and inclusion team. Her name had been redacted from the letter.

en staff

Date posted: 1 Feb 2020

On 17 December the deeply controversial appointment of Stephen Cottrell as Archbishop of York was announced.

Carefully selected quotes from his speech to the press¹ present a picture of an evangelical whose focus is on Christ. ‘What binds us together is … our faith in Jesus Christ. It’s our baptism and belonging to each other which is what really matters.’ However these quotes are removed from their context, and the context provides an entirely different view of the incoming Archbishop.

In what could mark the start of a return to sensible thinking on transgender issues, action is being brought against the Portman NHS Trust over its use of puberty blockers on children, it was reported in November.

The use of blockers has scant research behind it, but increasing numbers of children are being prescribed the medication which is only licensed for precocious onset of puberty. Indeed, research undertaken by the NHS’ own gender clinic, GIDS, has shown there is a significant increase in children trying to hurt or kill themselves when they are prescribed such medication. ‘Increase in use of (en September 2019 puberty blockers to be investigated.’)

en staff

Date posted: 1 Jan 2020

A United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) document from 2009, updated in 2018¹, appears to be the driving force behind the end of effective safeguarding of children. The document teaches masturbation to small children and promotes gender ideology.

The 140-page treatise encourages early exposure to the details of reproduction and self-stimulation. Binary humanity is accepted as an outdated idea.²

A man who underwent gender re-assignment surgery who subsequently became a Bible-believing Christian, called for more caution from medical and mental health services in gender clinics.

Peter Benjamin, 60, who served in the British Army, underwent surgery to remove his genitalia in 2015 at a private London hospital. For many years Benjamin had suffered from addiction to cross-dressing and alcohol, leading to depression and suicidal thoughts. Married three times, his first wife mistook his addiction for homosexuality, while his second wife encouraged him to cross dress – even going clothes shopping with him. In 2005 he married his third wife, whom he credits with bringing his life back on track. However in the wake of losing her to cancer in 2011 and overwhelmed by grief, he decided that he wanted to become a woman ‘full-time’ and begin identifying as ‘Victoria.’

David Mackereth, an experienced Christian doctor who refused to use transgender pronouns at work, was told his belief in Genesis 1:27 is not worthy of respect by the judge who presided over his Employment Tribunal case in early October.

The judge ruled that: ‘Lack of belief in transgenderism and conscientious objection to transgenderism … are incompatible with human dignity and conflict with the fundamental rights of others.’ He continued: ‘In so far as those beliefs form part of [Mackereth’s] wider faith, his wider faith also does not satisfy [the requirement of being worthy of respect in a democratic society, not incompatible with human dignity and not in conflict with the fundamental rights of others.]’

The first in a series of free publications was launched in November, aiming to support parents as they try to grapple with what schools are doing in the name of equality and human rights.

The Christian Institute are keen to make for clear that their publication, Equipped Equality, does not constitute legal advice. Rather, it contains simple explanations and helpful scenarios based upon real life school situations where competing rights are pitted against each other.

A transgender person has lost a legal case to be recorded as the father on the child’s birth certificate.

Sir Andrew McFarlane, President of the High Court’s Family Division, said someone who gives birth to a child is a mother. Freddy McConnell, born female but now legally male, retained female reproductive organs and conceived via donated sperm and IVF. McConnell was not permitted to list the relationship to the child as ‘father’ on the birth certificate and so challenged the Government.

Paediatricians are to investigate the controversial drugs used to halt puberty in children who want to change sex, it was reported in late July.

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health asked its ethics and law advisory committee to look at the ethics surrounding the rapid increase in the use of hormone blockers to treat under 16s. The drugs are currently only licensed for use in children under this age who start puberty early, before the age of nine, not for children who present as having ‘gender dysphoria’.

en staff

Date posted: 1 Aug 2019

Representatives from the Renew steering committee supported the account of John Parker at a meeting on 12 June 2019 regarding his resignation as vicar and school governor (en July). The representatives were part of a meeting of around 30 local clergy at which the Bishop of Chelmsford used language of leaving, and were present at a meeting in which communion was broken.

Bishop Stephen Cottrell disputed Parker’s account in a letter circulated to the clergy by the Bishop’s office in the Diocese of Chelmsford. A statement on GAFCON and the Church Society websites noted the Bishop had ‘carefully worded’ the letter to give the ‘impression that the Bishop had never suggested that Parker should leave the church’ due to his beliefs.