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
Dr Sentamu seems to deride the opinions of “philosophers, scientists, sociologists, statisticians” as if some of these disciplines weren’t excercised by Christians. To expect to arrive at a proper understanding of human sexuality from scripture is like trying to find a proper biblical basis for skin colour, left-handedness or the size of one’s feet. To ignore modern scientific insights in favour of some verses from ancient scriptures is a silly evangelical ploy not worthy of a distinguished church leader.
One question for one of the LLF seminars reads “How have sexual practices, sexuality, gender and sexual identities, family and procreation been affected by social and cultural shifts?” Am I the only one who finds this to be a very odd question? I don’t think that sexual practices and identities have been affected by “shifts.” The shift is that heteronormative people have been confronted with a long time reality. Many of the Native American Indian tribes speak of the “Two Spirit People,” and some recognized 5 genders. I’ve heard that there are tribes in Africa that have or had similar… Read more »
Cynthia – as someone in ‘the LLF group’, and in the History subgroup, without breaking the memorandum of understanding I can say that I suspect some think that outside forces cause people to decide they are gay or not the gender they’d thought they were, but most of those involved don’t think this. In LLF there are many different views on pretty much everything represented. This makes drafting a document very difficult. E.g. Do you go for ‘some think… ‘ ‘others don’t agree’? But doesn’t that risk making the group whose opinions are given first look like the ‘right’ ones?… Read more »
To me the seminars seem to be described from an evangelical perspective with a strong bias in favour of a traditional understanding of marriage. I could be wrong but it is a concern.
Cynthia. Ref your” Many of the Native American Indian tribes speak of the “Two Spirit People,” and some recognized 5 genders. I’ve heard that there are tribes in Africa that have or had similar sensibilities.” Have a look at Edward Carpenter’s “Intermediate Types among Primitive Folk” (it is easily downloaded from various sources). As far back as 1911 Carpenter was presenting evidence that that Two Spirit and such similar sensibilities were far from unusual, and possibly the norm, in many parts of the world and across many cultures. It was the the coming of Christianity which wiped out the activity,… Read more »
Thank you, Helen, Kate, and Simon for your perspectives. Good luck with the work, Helen.
John Sentamu, 2019: “”This is the kind of disagreement one would expect to find in a church which has got used to jumping to conclusions quickly, driven by the need for a crisp soundbite, a church no longer capable of pursuing a question patiently and in hope.” John Sentamu, 2012: “‘Marriage is marriage is marriage…What we should not do is begin to create comparisons of the different family structures because I think that it is a dead end conversation…However it is a fact of life that children are born out of the physical relationship of a mother and a father,… Read more »
Did I read that correctly?
The Archbishop of York is accusing the Church of England of not reading the Bible sufficiently?
Honestly . . . with friends like that, who needs enemies?
Actually I would agree with him – if what he means is that our lectionary is very selective and leaves out huge chunks of the Bible. But I suspect that’s not what he means.
I suspect not either. Did he ever, in his tenure, call for lectionary reform?
He’s just given the CofE’s foes a huge talking point. This was the very opposite of strategic or wise.
I read this as Sentamu saying, “If only people would study the Bible as diligently as I, then they would see that marriage can only be between one man and one woman.” There is nothing in there about expanding his own horizons. As to “disagreeing Christianly”, that doesn’t mean “disagreeing well” as the Archbishops continually preach. In fact, Jesus taught us how to decide if the morality – Scripture – is unclear. We are taught to look whether the vine bears good fruit. So, do same sex marriages help people or hurt them? That is where societal shifts are valuable,… Read more »
Just FYI: it’s my understanding that the ABY prefers to be ++Sentamu rather than ++John. In a discussion where names and identities are often subject to attack it’s important to use people’s preferred form of address.
You are correct: ABY signs +Sentamu Ebor. See the signatures of the two archbishop are the bottom:
https://lincolncathedral.com/letter-archbishops-canterbury-york/
It is so ironic that resistance to gay “marriage” – leading initially to civil partnerships rather than marriages – has had the greater potential to undermine “traditional” marriage in the end, with civil partnerships now available for straight couples after the recent court case…although I don’t know how popular these are likely to become.