Updated Monday evening
Church Times
Archbishops’ message: Don’t be unkind to the Church or each other
Church’s vision is for more front-line ministry, not less, Archbishop of York tells Synod members
Synod members hear significant changes planned for church safeguarding
This is the right moment to act, housing commissioners tell Synod
Press release from the Church of England
Report on housing crisis ‘challenge to the soul’ of the Church of England – Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of York General Synod Address on progress of Vision and Strategy – February 2021
Update
Stephen Lynas bathwellschap I can’t see nobody…
There is a recording of the whole day’s session on YouTube here.
«Archbishop Welby concurred, lamenting the “cruelty and savagery” of how Christians spoke to each other online. He reminded the hundreds of Synod members watching on Zoom that, when they wrote anything on Twitter, “you’re not speaking to a person but to the whole blinking world.”» So why didn’t he call out the CEEC and Christian Concern videos last year, or is it that he doesn’t like criticism of the bishops but doesn’t care about LGBTI people? Stephen Cottrell might also reflect on the fact that if the House of Bishops broadcast its proceedings then people wouldn’t fear he… Read more »
I wonder how kind the Arch/bishops think it is to allow homophobia to thrive?
Dan & Kate, you’re right the archbishops and bishops are happy to pass by on the other side and collude with the meanness directed at the LGBTQI community. They have dragged their heels for years as to justice for the victims of their safeguarding failures; yet if people take to social media to hold them to account they cry foul. The unkindness meted out to Matthew Ineson particularly springs to mind.
The late Neil Todd and Revd Graham Sawyer also spring to mind – the latter saying at the IICSA in July 2018 “The sex abuse that was perpetrated upon me by Peter Ball pales into insignificance when compared to the entirely cruel and sadistic treatment that has been meted out to me by officials, both lay and ordained. I know from the testimony of other people who have got in touch with me over the last five or 10 years that what I have experienced is not dissimilar to the experience of so many others and I use these words… Read more »
The words of Revd Matthew Ineson – said in 2019 – need to be confronted head-on: “I don’t believe the Church should be appointing anyone to investigate it – it should be truly independent, which it isn’t. The Church, the ones who are being investigated, are trying to control the whole thing…You can’t investigate yourself. There’s too much bias there. There’s too much conflict of interest…It’s the re-abuse by the bishops and archbishops themselves, and I think, if any shame wants applying, it needs to apply to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York and the House of… Read more »
RE: Synod members hear significant changes planned for church safeguarding ”Although no decision had yet been made, one option being considered for the longer-term future was to spin off safeguarding responsibility completely into an independent charity or trust. This proposal has been long demanded by some abuse survivors and campaigners, but has been resisted until now by the C of E hierarchy (News, 6 March 2018)” If my reading of the answer from the Secretary General William Nye to David Lamming’s question at General Synod is correct, the “C of E hierarchy” has absolutely no intention of relinquishing control of… Read more »
And if that is the case, one has to wonder why?
That is a very good question Kate. I think Fiona Gardner’s book “Sex, Power, Control” can provide clues.
”I want to be able to go to the poorest and most deprived parish in the northern province and assure them that we are spending the pounds given wisely.” And so the ABY reveals his commitment to the old discredited system. The parishes pay up, the senior leaders decide how it is spent. The level of trust needed for that to work has been eroded, and the wisdom of how money is spent on centralised roles rejected. The ABY either can’t hear or can’t stomach the call for the Church Commissioners to help fund established parish ministry, creating a flow… Read more »
I appreciate that the ABY has to tread a tightrope between differing ideas of the future of the church and I know Stephen Cottrell to be a hard working and compassionate Bishop but as an exercise in obfuscation this address takes some beating. ‘Our second objective is to become a church where mixed ecology is the norm. This, I fear, has sometimes been misunderstood or misheard. I apologise if anything I have said, or failed to say, gave a false impression. However, it is categorically not about the dismantling of the parish system, but a parish system revitalised for mission’. I… Read more »
Thanks for this. Its worth googling Birch Church. I only skimmed the material but clearly the future of the church is still unclear over 35yrs after its closure, a saga indeed. What a dire future country anglicanism will have in the coming decades.
To the moderator: is the archbishops’ message available on YouTube perchance?
I have added a link above to the YouTube recording. You can jump directly to the Archbishops here.