A little note from Rosa Hunt, IBTS doctoral student from Wales:
I know that at IBTS we are passionate about freedom of religion, so I wonder whether anyone has any comments on two recent pieces of British legislation. Late last year the government produced a piece of legislation which proposed that gay marriages could be held in churches – but banned them from Church of England churches. Now today I hear that a woman MP is proposing legislation which would force the Church of England to accept woman bishops. I have a problem with both these bits of legislation, and it is nothing to do with my beliefs about the nature of marriage (incidentally in this case it is the Baptist Union of Great Britain which has determined what I must believe, but that’s another story …) or the equality of women. Of course I believe woman should be in ordained ministry! But my problem is that I categorically reject the right of the state to tell the church what we can and can’t do! Doesn’t anyone else agree? Why haven’t we had a massive outcry from the Baptists? is this a case of “they came for the Anglicans but I wasn’t an Anglican …”
