Living in Love and Faith (LLF) is a collection of resources to enable Christian teaching and learning about Identity, Sexuality, Relationships and Marriage
LLF is the most extensive research into this area by any church, and it’s designed to enable a period of church-wide learning and engagement to take place during 2021, after which there will be recommendations made for the future life and mission of the Church.
The LLF resources are intended to help all of us, whatever our theological convictions, to think more deeply about what it means to be human and how to live in love and faith with one another as Christians.
We are encouraging everyone who engages with the LLF material to fill in the LLF survey available on the LLF Hub (there’s also a Word doc version available).
For more information on the project background, please visit the Church of England website.
To view the LLF resources, please visit the LLF learning hub.
This page aims to provide additional information for Diocese of London parishes, particularly those who wish to run an LLF course in their church:
Recognising the sensitivity of the matters which LLF explores, we have clergy willing to act as a listening ear.
Click here for details on how to contact the LLF chaplains.
Participation in the LLF project is not compulsory. Some parishes will choose not to engage with LLF, which is completely fine.
A good setting for running the LLF course is in small groups, but we recognise that in many places it’s not currently possible to set up an LLF group who meet in person. In other places discussions have begun to take place online.
For those not comfortable doing the course with others, you can still use the material for reflection and learning, and then feedback via the national Resource Hub so that your views are heard (see feedback section below).
Timing
The closing date for feedback is now April 2022 (instead of the previously communicated January 2022). We hope this will be welcomed by churches who wish to engage but are not ready to do so this autumn. This means that the findings of the ‘Listening to the Whole Church’ process will be reported at the beginning of September 2022. The materials will still be available as a resource beyond the feedback closing date.
Feedback
The feedback options are fully explained on the LLF learning hub, but there are several ways to contribute to the conversation:
For the full instructions please visit the learning hub – you will find the feedback information under the course introduction. Individuals who feel unable to take part in a group can still feed into the national process this way. If this is you, please do contribute your thoughts and encourage others to do so, perhaps particularly those you know who in recent times have found themselves drifting away from church because of the issues raised by LLF.
The diocese has a small number of facilitators available to help parishes begin their LLF course.
The ‘offer’ from the diocesan facilitators is to assist local groups by running two sessions. The first session will focus on the Pastoral Principles, which frame the whole LLF process and which encourage a very particular approach to conversation, together with other tools for ensuring a good process. The second session will be run alongside the local leader – ie the person who will be leading the group through the rest of the LLF Course – and will focus on part of Session 1 of the Course itself. The expectation is then that the course will be run locally.
If you would like the assistance of these Diocesan facilitators please email: LLF.Admin@nulllondon.anglican.org.
These six pastoral principles encourage a very particular approach to conversation. They invite church communities to examine afresh their life together. The focus relates to LGBTI+ people, but they apply to all sorts of difference and diversity among God’s people. The principles are commended by the House of Bishops.
A guidance document which suggests how to manage potentially difficult situations which could arise in an LLF discussion group. A wide range of people from different theological traditions and lived experience fed into the drafting of this document.
