The Jesmond Conference 2021 is on “Good Disagreement”? and is related to the Living in Love and Faith project on “Christian teaching and learning about identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage”. But we meet assuming the Anglican conviction (see Canon A5) that, as the Bishops said in Issues in Human Sexuality:

“there is in Scripture an evolving convergence on the ideal of lifelong, monogamous, heterosexual union as the setting intended by God for the proper development of men and women as sexual beings. Sexual activity of any kind outside marriage comes to be seen as sinful, and homosexual practice as especially dishonourable” (2.29). Canon A5

With that conviction we aim to examine: one, the seriousness of the present situation sexually both in our wider society as well as in the church; two, what is behind the LLF project; three, what does the Bible have to teach about good disagreement, bad disagreement and, importantly, discipline; and, four, how we should respond.

The Jesmond Conference runs annually to engage with public issues from a Christian perspective. David Holloway has been Vicar of Jesmond Parish Church since 1973, a large Anglican Church in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK with 2 sites, a staff team of over 30 and a congregation of over 1,000. He is often asked to speak on public issues on local and national radio, is a council member of Reform and is the author of several books including, 'The Church of England, Where Is it Going?'