The detailed reports of last week’s Church of England General Synod in the Church Times are now available to non-subscribers.
Stand up to false prophets, says Sentamu
UK a ‘scary place’ for Christians
Synod approves ban on clerics in racist parties
No high hurdle for Anglican Covenant
Catching a vision for mission
Synod considers its understanding of Mary as a woman
No change in law for bishops, but vigilance promised
More ‘accessible’ baptism prayers on the cards
Members call for higher and lower fees
A vicar’s welcome makes all the difference
Minister gives Synod assurance over the commitment to aid
Theology aids ‘relaxing’ on defence
Farewells
Synod briefs
From “No high hurdle for Anglican Covenant”:
‘Dr Thomas-Betts said she held Dr Williams in the highest esteem, “but what is the guarantee we will always have an Archbishop who has similar intelligence, compassion, and sensitivity? We should look beyond the person of Archbishop Rowan.”’
Now that made me laugh. But I’m from the US, and perhaps Dr Thomas-Betts’ words describing Dr Williams have a different meaning in England.
Interesting comment by the archbishop of York during the Covenant majority debate: “He also called for a distinction between a Measure and an Act of Synod. A Measure needed a two-thirds majority to convince Parliament; and Act of Synod was for the Church: it had no other external controls, and if it turned into a Measure, they would have difficulty. “
‘HIGH value was set on the continuing ministry of the parish priest as “opening the door” to church for nervous banns couples, the Synod heard during a presentation on Tuesday afternoon.
The presentation, on the Weddings Project..’
Same sex couples are just as nervous, just as in need of welcome , and loving acceptance – or more so given all we have gone through.
Ironic that the official C of E is making noises about failing same sex couples- yet again.
“The purpose of society was to enable all men and women to flourish in a relationship to God and to each other, Dr Sentamu went on. Society needed to encourage enterprise and creativity. Work was not simply a means of making money, but the means by which individuals gained dignity and a sense of self-worth” – Archbishop of York to General Synod – I found this to be the most important segment of his speech to the recent G.S. meeting. In his plea for the Church to not be put off by the alien call of the world to secularism,… Read more »
The notion that ‘the UK is a “scary place” for Christians’ is self-regarding and absurd.
“Areas where discussion might develop included the theme of Mary as paradigm, a bearer of the Word — a theme that helped to clarify what it was to be a disciple of Christ. In quarrying some material here, there was a focus on grace, Mary receiving the grace she needed to harness the incarnationality of God. That theme was not irrelevant to other issues, such as what it meant for humanity to be interdependent.” – The ABC’s suggestion on the place of Mary – I found ++Rowan’s pointer towards the relevance of Mary as ‘Paradigm – Bearer of The Word’… Read more »
“Sarah Finch (London), requesting a debate on freedom of conscience, which had been “seriously eroded” in the UK, where it was “not safe to be an openly Christian person”, said that Christians had been publicly humiliated or sacked for living by perfectly orthodox Christian beliefs. “Britain is now a very scary place to be a committed Christian,” she said. “ If Ms Finch seriously thinks that living in a country where Christianity is the established religion is “scary,” maybe she’s not cut out for this Christianity thing. Christians in several countries (Heard of Indonesia, Ms Finch? How about Pakistan?)are really… Read more »
Perhaps Sarah Finch needs to more closely examine the potentiality of the Church to rule out the exercise of individual conscience – certainly on matters of the use of one’s God-given gender or sexual-orientation. For the Church to continue to ignore the realities of a modern scientifc understanding of these issues is to perpetuate the mistakes of the mediaeval understanding of the Church on the evolving scientific discovery of the fact that the earth is not flat! Individual conscience has to be acknowledged as the basis for any understanding of the collective consciousness that leads to social cohesion. And for… Read more »