Thinking Anglicans

IICSA Anglican Church hearing day 6

Updated 26 July (video recordings added)

Transcript of hearing for Monday of week 2.

Video recordings:

2 Comments

General Synod – day 3 – Sunday 7 July 2019

Updated Monday morning

General Synod members attended the 10 am Sung Eucharist at York Minster, where the Archbishop of Canterbury preached this sermon.

Order Paper 3 – Sunday 7 July afternoon – details of the day’s business

Press releases from the Church of England about items from today’s business

Presentation from lead safeguarding bishop, Peter Hancock

Synod backs further steps towards communion with the Methodist Church

News reports

Laura FitzPatrick The Telegraph Contactless collection plates used in York Minster for the first time

John Blow Yorkshire Post Archbishop of York attends his last General Synod in the city

Madeleine Davies, Tim Wyatt and Adam Becket Church Times Bishop Hancock challenges the Synod on safeguarding

Christian Today Church of England has a ‘long way still to travel’ on safeguarding

Madeleine Davies, Tim Wyatt and Adam Becket Church Times Division over Anglican-Methodist plan prompts Synod to decelerate process

Christian Today Church of England moves towards communion with the Methodist Church

Synod members’ blogs

Andrew Nunn Cautious steps

Stephen Lynas bathwellschap Together we can make it happen; wait and see

6 Comments

General Synod – day 2 – Saturday 6 July 2019

Updated Sunday morning and evening

Order Paper 2 – Saturday 6 July morning – details of the day’s business

Archbishop of York’s presidential address

Synod passed this motion on responding to serious youth violence.

That this Synod, recognizing that Serious Youth Violence affects the whole community;
a) call upon the National Church Institutions to recognize the opportunity the Church of England has to contribute to understanding of Serious Youth Violence and strategies to prevent it and to make available resources for those affected;
b) call upon Diocesan Boards of Education to recognize how the use of Exclusions impacts on serious youth violence and encourage alternative provision;
c) call upon dioceses to resource:
i) information about locally based resource and support networks, and training for church leaders in best practice for supporting those affected by Serious Youth Violence, including gun and knife crime,
ii) partnership work with statutory organizations and wider civil society to provide pastoral care for people affected by serious youth violence.

There were 315 votes in favour, none against and no recorded abstentions. None of the three amendments in the order paper were passed.

Synod is not sitting on Saturday afternoon. Instead members are invited to attend a series of seminars on The Living in Love and Faith Project and the Pastoral Advisory Group.

Update

There are two press releases from the Church of England about items from this morning’s business.

Synod unanimously backs call to act on serious youth violence

Synod votes to adopt Covenant on Clergy Care and Well-Being

Press reports

Madeleine Davies Church Times Our Church is too addicted to sound-bites, Archbishop of York tells Synod

Christian Today Church of England has become an ‘echo-chamber instead of interpreter’ on issues of human sexuality – John Sentamu

Madeleine Davies, Tim Wyatt and Adam Becket Church Times Synod votes for collaborative efforts to stem youth violence

Press Association (via the Belfast Telegraph) Church vows to play proactive role in tackling violent crime

Laura FitzPatrick The Telegraph Church of England schools urged not to expel pupils amid rise in youth violence

Harriet Sherwood The Guardian Bishop calls for Church of England schools to minimise exclusions

Christian Today Church of England clergy to be offered mentoring and coaching to support improved wellbeing

Christian Today Church of England commits to doing more to stop serious youth violence

Synod members’ blogs

Stephen Lynas bathwellschap Take good care of yourself

Andrew Nunn And / Or

14 Comments

Opinion – 6 July 2019

Jenny Standage Women and the Church Forty years on; A Woman’s Place is in the House of Bishops

Richard Peers Quodcumque – Serious Christianity Clergy Discipline Measure – the need for total change

Martyn Percy ViaMedia.News Does the Bible Really…Advocate the “Nuclear Family”

Cornel Wilde Anglican Ink The English, the evangelicals and the elites: The school for scandals

12 Comments

General Synod – day 1 – Friday 5 July 2019

Order Paper 1 – Friday 5 July – details of the day’s business
Questions and Answers

Stephen Lynas bathwellschap I know there’s an answer
a summary of the day’s business

Christian Today Church of England schools must safeguard different views on gender and sexuality, says bishop

2 Comments

IICSA Anglican Church Hearing Day 5

Updated 26 July (video recordings added)

The transcript of Friday’s hearing is now published.

Video recordings:

List of documents adduced.

Witness statements:

Church Times Church in Wales falls under IICSA’s scrutiny as Archbishop and Provincial Secretary are questioned.

0 Comments

Pre-Synod News and Opinion

The Church of England’s General Synod meets in York this weekend from today until Tuesday.

Stephen Lynas bathwellschap A bridge over troubled water
Stephen’s usual excellent introduction to this week’s business

Madeleine Davies Church Times Anglican Catholic Future raises concerns about Methodist proposals
“Conference’s backing same-sex marriage is now another issue”
[See our earlier article on this topic here.]
Synod ‘lazy and incurious’ about safeguarding scandals

Gabriella Swerling The Telegraph Church of England will condone gay couples for first time – as long as they were man and wife when they took vows
Steve Doughty Mail Online Church of England will allow husbands and wives to stay married after one changes gender, giving their blessing for same-sex marriages in major departure from traditional views
[This refers to question 86 here.]

Harriet Sherwood The Guardian C of E to recognise religious communities for first time in centuries

There are links to the Synod agenda and papers here. Synod opens at 2.30 pm today and you can view the live feed here.

0 Comments

IICSA Anglican Church Hearing Day 4

Updated 26 July (video recordings added)

The timetable for Week 2 of these hearings has been published today.

The transcript of today’s (Thursday week 1) hearing is now published here.

Video recordings:

List of documents adduced today.

Witness statements

Discussion paper by Colin Perkins

Church Times IICSA: Canon Bursell renews plea to Parliament to render seal of confession obsolete

Law & Religion UK IICSA: Some more legal views (includes links to more of today’s documents)

14 Comments

IICSA Anglican Church Hearing Day 3

Updated 26 July (video recordings added)

The transcript of the hearing for day 3 (Wednesday) is now available here.

Video recordings:

List of documents adduced today.

Witness Statements:

Media coverage has already appeared:

Church Times Bishop of Chester tells IICSA that paedophile cleric was ‘penitent’

Chester Standard
Bishop of Chester accepts he failed to pass on vicar’s ‘child abuse confession’ letter to church safeguarding adviser or police

‘Suffer the little children to come unto me’ – former Chester bishop quoted Bible before sexually abusing teenage girl, inquiry hears

Telegraph England’s longest serving bishop blocked lifetime ban for paedophile priest, government inquiry hears

Cheshire Live Bishop of Chester admits ‘misjudgment’ over handling of pervert vicar

1 Comment

General Synod Questions

The booklet of Questions and Answers  to be taken at the Church of England’s General Synod this weekend is now available for download. It includes both the general questions to be taken on Friday, and those regarding safeguarding to be taken on Sunday. Since the answers are published in advance neither they nor the questions will not be read out, but members will have the opportunity to ask supplementary questions.

11 Comments

Opinion – 3 July 2019

Duncan Forbes Christian Today What Christians shouldn’t say in response to an abuse story

Carrie Pemberton Ford Women and the Church The Fall of the Berlin Wall, GPS and the Ordination of Women: the liberation of the Church of England? 25 years and counting

7 Comments

IICSA Anglican Church Hearing Day 2

Updated 26 July (video recordings added)

Transcript of second day of hearings published here.

Video recordings:

Document links (28 in total for day 2, now a total of 7 for day 1) here.

List of all documents adduced today.

Witness Statements:

Extract from Elliott Report

Media coverage:

Church Times IICSA: Bishop of Buckingham criticises ‘unhealthy’ level of bishops’ power

1 Comment

Catholic Anglicans critique CofE-Methodist proposals

The CofE General Synod in York will debate the latest stage of the current proposals this weekend. The most recent document under consideration is GS 2135. The earlier document is GS 2086.

Today, both Anglican Catholic Future and Forward in Faith have issued statements.

A Statement by Anglican Catholic Future on the Forthcoming Discussion in Synod of Mission and Ministry in Covenant

…This further report comes before General Synod this week (as paper GS 2135). Anglican Catholic Future is glad to see that it picks up–or seems to pick up–a range of concerns raised in 2018 including:

  1. whether a partial development such as this–with interchangeability of ministry between two churches that remain distinct–aids or hinders the goal of full visible unity (section A1);
  2.  whether the change in ecclesial life of the Methodist Church proposed in MMiCconstitutes a recognisable form of the historic episcopate (section B);
  3. the relation between Eucharistic presidency and episcopal ordination (section A3).

The working group has done important work in relation to the first of those questions, concerning the unity of the churches, which we welcome. When it comes to the other two questions that caused concern in early 2018, however, the document placed before Synod this week is far more problematic…

Forward in Faith – The Anglican-Methodist Proposals

Forward in Faith welcomes the statement by Anglican Catholic Future about the latest Anglican-Methodist report.

In our own February 2018 statement, we noted questions about whether the proposals would lead to unity, and whether the office of ‘President-bishop’ (to be held for one year only) could be recognized as a ‘local adaption’ of the historic episcopate of the catholic Church. We are grateful to note some progress with regard to the question of unity, but our question as to whether what is proposed is in fact episcopacy remains.

Our third and greatest concern was about the proposal to set aside the requirement that those who minister as priests in the Church of England should have been episcopally ordained to the office of priest. In response to this concern, which was shared by others, the General Synod asked the Faith and Order Commission to ‘explore and elucidate further the relationship between episcopal ordination and eucharistic presidency’. That the Commission has not attempted to offer such an elucidation is a deep disappointment…

14 Comments

Archbishops will refuse debate on Blackburn letter

The Church Times carried a report recently: Synod should welcome bishops’ safeguarding letter.

A LETTER from the bishops of the diocese of Blackburn, which warned that the Church’s mission was “fatally undermined” by the abuse crisis (News, 21 June), should be formally welcomed by the General Synod, two lay members have suggested.

A motion commending its “victim-centred approach” as a “suitable model for developing reconciliation with those who have been wronged by our sins of commission and omission” has been proposed by Martin Sewell, of the diocese of Rochester, and David Lamming, of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich.

They are seeking the permission of the Archbishops to introduce this motion at the meeting in York next month, when the Business Committee submits report on the first day.

This week, they noted that the letter from Blackburn had been welcomed by a number of survivors, including Jo Kind, who addressed the Synod last year (News, 7 July 2018).

“In recent times, we have sought a general debate on a safeguarding theme. Presentations and questions are not the same thing,” they said.

Their suggested motion offered “an opportunity to enable the Church to embrace the important themes of repentance, listening with humility, and pastoral care”.

The archbishops have today rejected this proposal. Below you will find the text of the proposed motion and the text of the reply sent by the Bishop at Lambeth. Note that the proposal was not to debate the IICSA report at all but only the four page pastoral letter from the Blackburn senior clergy.

“This Synod welcome the terms of the Diocese of Blackburn ‘Ad Clerum’ letter dated  17th June 2019, reflecting
on the IICSA report, dated May 2019, on Chichester Diocese and Peter Ball, and commend its victim-centred approach to all in authority within the Church as a suitable model for developing reconciliation with those who have been wronged by our sins of commission and omission.”

From: Tim Thornton
Date: 2 July 2019
To: Martin Sewell, David Lamming
Cc:
Subject: Proposal to ask permission to introduce a motion

Dear Martin and David

Thank you for the e mail you have sent to both the Presidents letting them know about your intention to ask permission to introduce a motion at the Synod in York.

I am writing to let you know that both the Presidents have considered your idea carefully and both feel it is not appropriate at this time and so will refuse you the permission you seek.

Of course your motion is an important one and the matters you raise are crucial for our life as a Church.  However as you both know the IICSA hearing is taking place at the same time as the York session and many of the key people in the NST and others (including the Bishop of Bath and Wells) are focussed on responding to the inquiry and listening carefully to the survivors and all who are giving evidence over this fortnight.

It is also the case that the Interim Report has only recently been published and the NSSG has even more recently sent in its response to the recommendations.  The Presidents do think it is right to allow some more time for people to read those reports and consider their views and reactions to the important and difficult material contained in the report. It is also important to allow the present hearing to take its course before we have a debate on these matters on the floor of Synod.

There are of course questions and space being given to Safeguarding on the Sunday of this session so there will be opportunity for voices to be heard.

I understand this will not be the answer you would like but I hope you can understand the Presidents have given your question thought and do not think that this particular session is the right time to allow for the proper preparation and the availability for all who would and should be there to take part in any such debate.

Yours

Tim

7 Comments

IICSA Anglican Church Hearing Day 1

Updated 26 July (video recordings added)

The transcript of the first day of this hearing, which covers both the Church of England and the Church in Wales, is available here.

Video recordings of today:

List of documents adduced today.

Witness statement of Bishop Sarah Mullally

The Church Times has published two reports of the hearing:

The Daily Mail has this: Almost 400 people in ‘positions of trust’ with the Church of England have been convicted of child sex offences, inquiry hears.

The timetable.for the remainder of the first week is here. The hearings are scheduled to last two weeks.

3 Comments