Following today’s publication of the agenda for next month’s meeting of the Church of England General Synod these articles have appeared.
John Bingham The Telegraph Vicars face end to job ‘for life’ culture as Church of England fights extinction
Tim Wyatt Church Times Synod to tackle raft of reports in small groups
Church Times Group wants to cut C of E’s red legislative tape
Paul Handley Church Times Don’t forget history when you fund the future, Commissioners warn
Plans unveiled day after day for C of E’s new reformation
Gavin Drake Church Times Church of England proposes halving of Synod days
[This refers to GS Misc 1094 Optimising the Roles of the NCIs which was issued to Synod members today and states “It requires no decisions by Synod at this stage but is being circulated for information.”]
Ruth Gledhill Christian Today Radical shake up of CofE urged to stop ‘terrifying’ decline
Four more reports in the wake of Lord Green’s Managing Talent. I’ve lost count of the number of reports the C of E has commissioned and published since I was first ordained almost 40 years ago. The vast majority of them simply mouldering away gathering dust. Surely the last thing we need from an increasingly panicky hierarchy is yet more reports which in themselves can solve nothing let alone halt the continuing decline in church attendance. I recently came across a letter to Cosmo Lang written by Evelyn Underhill in which she stated the following:- “We look to the clergy… Read more »
The proposal to streamline part of the legislative process sounds like a welcome one. As for reducing the number of General Synod days, anyone interested in greater transparency should be wary of any initiative that looks like reducing democracy within the Church, namely through the reduction in debating time and scrutiny by the gathered synod.
The proposals for redundancy even for those with freehold are outrageous and probably unlawful as they touch upon a long held right that surely must be protected under common law if not by employment legislation. How can it be at all right to impose a restriction of 21 months on the proposed month’s stipend per annum served. Even if this suggestion comes into force then what figure would be right. The actual stipend paid or a figure that includes the “housing” element discussed in the synod papers on clergy stipends? This also raises the question about what else may be… Read more »
Paul Richardson; I share your concerns. And I wonder just how much of the motivation for the proposed abolition of freehold may be to assist those wishing to dispense with turbulent priests who insist on exercising their legal right to marry…
‘Reducing he number of General Synod days…’ sounds identical to what the current Archbishop of Wales did in radically reducing the size and scope of the Church in Wales’s Governing Body (our equivalent to your GS). The result? More top-down implementation; less consultation; a more monochrome complexion to representation; and a much less consensual Church where the ‘foot soldiers’ feel they are no longer stake-holders in the decision-making and vision-shaping of the Church. We face an even greater demographic crisis and the pathetic attempts at a growth strategy taking us up to 2020 is precisely what happens when there is… Read more »