Church motion backgrounds4/10/2024 Love Matters, which was commended by the Synod on Monday, affirms the value of marriage, and includes a recommendation that the Church offer high-quality marriage preparation. “We are here for all and not just for the people who look like us and speak like us and believe what we believe.” “Get over it, and get on with it,” she said in exasperation. Mr Hughes later apologised for the “inappropriateness” of his comment, which the Bishop of Dover, the Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, described as “unnecessary and disappointing”. In his introduction on Tuesday, Carl Hughes (Archbishops’ Council) declared himself “singularly depressed” that the Synod had been unable to affirm a traditional view on marriage in an earlier motion commending a report from the Archbishops’ Commission on Families and Households, Love Matters. Polarised views on marriage slipped into other debates, however - most unexpectedly during the approval of a draft Order prescribing parochial fees for the next term. This was accepted by a self-confessed “tired” Bishop Snow, who later described it as an “open, thoughtful, and gracious debate”. Members agreed, in the expectation that more concrete proposals will be brought back in July. Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, proposed that the debate be cut short through a procedural motion. But after an amendment calling for “legally secure structural provision” had been defeated, the Archdeacon of Liverpool, the Ven. Speakers managed to avoid restating personal views on how the agreed Prayers of Love and Faith (blessings for same-sex couples) would be implemented. A motion from the lead bishop on LLF, the Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Revd Martyn Snow - that the Synod “welcome” a set of ten commitments to the process – was aired. During a short debate, Nigel Bacon (Lincoln) said: “Whatever side of the issue we stand on, the tenor of recent debates has, sadly, done us all a disservice.”ĭebates on the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process have certainly been fraught in the past few years. Too many people are getting hurt.”Īnother motion, also passed on Saturday, requested the Business Committee to revise the current Synod members’ code of conduct. Sometimes, when things go wrong, they go wrong badly. Introducing the debate on Saturday, the Revd Dr Sara Batts-Neale (Chelmsford) said that the motion was “not about a one-off loss of temper, a one-parish incident, a one clash of personalities. A review would include consideration of a disciplinary process for the removal of PCC members who showed “persistent departures from acceptable standards of behaviour”. The Revd Sonia Barron (Lincoln) recalled experiences of lay churchgoers who felt that they “owned the church” and so could openly undermine or intimidate the incumbent.Īlso approved by a large majority was a Chelmsford diocesan synod motion asking whether a code of conduct for PCC members and lay volunteers might be drawn up. Many personal examples of abuse of clergy by lay people were given during the debate. It asked the Synod to recognise “the serious pastoral problems and unfairness that arise while clergy can be subject to penalties for bullying that include prohibition and removal from office but there is no means of disqualifying a churchwarden, PCC member, or other lay officer who is guilty of bullying from holding office.” Mark Ireland (Blackburn), and approved, on Sunday afternoon. Three motions dealing with behaviour were brought to the Synod.Ī private members’ motion on sanctioning lay officers for bullying ( News, 9 February) was brought by the Archdeacon of Blackburn, the Ven. “Suffering and enemies are faced best in communities with trust across the divide rather than in self-protecting and reinforcing huddles.” This was difficult, but the Church would not be able to minister to the outside world unless it was dealing well with its own internal issues. “We need to assume the best rather than the worst,” Archbishop Welby warned members. In his presidential address at the start of the February sessions last Friday, the Archbishop of Canterbury said that observers of the Synod’s deliberations in recent times had noted the “angst-ridden tone” and “unfair attacks” - bitterness and personal abuse had become normalised in the Church, he said. AFTER early warnings about tone, and with a motion on members’ conduct on the agenda, the General Synod took a more gracious approach to the wide range of issues up for debate in Church House, Westminster, over last weekend.
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