Updated Tuesday morning
Order paper for the morning session
Order paper for the afternoon session
Stephen Lynas writes on Monday’s events: I fought the law…
In the morning Synod agreed the expenditure of the Archbishops’ Council for 2019.
It then spent the rest of the morning, and much of the afternoon, considering the legislation listed in the morning order paper. For the record the items for final approval were given this. Of the amendments to Draft Church Representation and Ministers Measure and the associated Amending Canon, only 518, 524 and 525 were passed. Finally the second miscellaneous provisions measure was sent to a revision committee.
This only left time for the debate on the National Health Service. This was on a Diocesan Synod Motion from Carlisle.
After amendment (to add paragraphs (b), (d) and (e)) the motion read:
That this Synod:
(a) welcome and commend the report The Long-term Sustainability of the NHS and Adult Social Care published in April 2017 by the House of Lords Select Committee on the Long-term Sustainability of the NHS;
(b) express its heartfelt gratitude for the dedication of NHS and social care staff, and call on local churches to support those working in the NHS and social care, and to pray for them regularly publicly and privately;
(c) call upon Her Majesty’s Government to implement the recommendations made by the Select Committee, giving particular consideration to:
(i) the problems arising from the use of urban models of strategic care in the rural context;
(ii) whether social care is being adequately funded in the context of an ageing population; and
(iii) whether sufficient resources are being given to the recruitment, outside larger urban centres, of experienced and highly qualified health professionals;
(d) call upon Her Majesty’s Government to establish a Royal Commission to consider how the United Kingdom’s health 2and social care needs might best be delivered and financed in the period to 2040, taking into account expected changes in life expectancy, demography and medical technology; and
(e) call upon local churches to lead by example in showing Christian compassion and care to the elderly and vulnerable in our local communities, as we have done historically and is now especially needed, given the shortfall in the funding of social care.
The motion was carried by 267 votes to none, with no recorded abstentions.
Official press release: Synod backs Royal Commission on future of health and social care
Press report
Olivia Rudgard The Telegraph Church of England sees fall in planned donations for first time in 50 years as millennials fail to engage
I think this is very telling:
Julie Dziegiel, the treasurer of a parish in the diocese of Oxford, said: “We need to address the issue of giving by our millennial generation, the future of the church, but they are saddled with student debt and looking at being unable to buy a house.”
I’m left wondering what the CofE might say about this situation, which is only going to continue until the economic ideology of government changes. This is a matter of intergenerational justice, much like climate change.
General Synod Round-Up – Safeguarding – ‘BathWellsChap’ “Yesterday’s round-up has attracted some critical below-the-line comment grumbling that I did not say anything about the Bishop Bell issue. I try hard to only report and comment on things I know about or have special interest in. The point of bathwellschap is to explore and explain Synod for those who aren’t there but might be interested. I don’t do campaigning here” – Stephen Lynas – ‘BathWellsChap https://bathwellschap.wordp… For Stephen Lynas to sniffily dismiss and reduce the Bishop Bell issue to mere “campaigning” is ……. interesting. This critical issue was formally debated on… Read more »