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d martin auton lloyd noted that in his deanery there are more clergy in civil partnerships than in marriage a key theme was how lesbian and gay clergy and lay people ask not for change but simply for recognition of their lives and ministries as graham put it where is he a lifelong anglican affirmed why is he not included there were some rather odd speeches from conservatives worrying about whether intimacy is an ambiguous word read my supporting paper holding up the is it a duck is it a rabbit optical illusion don t ask but there is an excellent discussion of its use in the debate this morning here assuming sexual and romantic are the same thing conjuring up the image of the church as the bride of christ but with a muddy dress and a speech by a traditionalist young woman who is certain that she should not enter a same sex relationship that s of course up to her it doesn t help those who have found security and growth in such a relationship the voting was complicated when jamie harrison s amendment item 53 came to the vote it was defeated there was a vote by houses meaning that something has to pass in all three of them which went bishops 17 in favour 7 against 6 abstentions clergy 78 in favour 90 against 4 abstentions laity 88 in favour 93 against 1 abstention so it failed in two houses and thus failed overall when chris dalliston s amendment item 54 was voted on however it passed in all three houses bishops 12 in favour 8 against 8 abstentions clergy 100 in favour 68 against 4 abstentions laity 102 in favour 76 against 4 abstentions bearing in mind that this amendment entirely replaced my original short motion you d perhaps think that the voting on it would be replicated when we went on to vote on the motion as amended after all this had exactly the same words no on the final amended motion we voted bishops 11 in favour 14 against 4 abstentions clergy 93 in favour 79 against 0 abstentions laity 101 in favour 83 against 0 abstentions assuming that there were roughly the same people in the room or on zoom some of the clergy seem to have decided they were against rather than in favour but the overall vote result was a pass however the bishops changed their votes in a way that led to the motion failing because of the house of bishops this is very baffling and perhaps some time we will find out what was going on in the later debate on trust professor veronica hope hailey commented on how very very odd the c of e is although what she was thinking about were its structures at national and diocesan level alongside its reliance on volunteers at parish level she observed that it s not clear who is in charge bishops claim that they only have soft power but then look at them at a coronation i d add voting by houses can also show their power she noted that synod just goes round in circles and that s what we did on my pmm the day ended with bishop robert springett updating us on safeguarding a key comment was that safety depends on a culture that will not abide theology being used for coercive purposes he also supported mandatory reporting rather than reliance on the seal of the confessional this was pushed back on by bishop philip north there was a question about what counts as spiritual abuse which as i heard it came rather close to asking for support for conversion practices about spiritual direction about why not all lessons learned reviews are published and about the training which has to be carried out in parishes to help people to volunteer as parish safeguarding officers long day lots to think about not least that the bishops suddenly felt unable to support saying that all baptised believing and faithful persons regardless of sexual orientation are full members of the body of christ i am guessing that this is their problem as i cannot see that they would fail to agree that we have a range of views in the c of e what message is this sending to those faithful queer people who are clergy and laity and bishops in the c of e share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook email a link to a friend opens in new window email share on reddit opens in new window reddit like loading posted in living in love and faith safeguarding general synod marriage tagged general synod homosexuality prayers of love and faith sexuality trust 1 comment synod at home 2 sunday into monday posted on july 13 2026 by fluff35 sunday at synod always begins with a communion service from york minster lots of members don t go for a variety of reasons but for me it has been one of the highlights of synod membership and i am happy to report that this is one situation in which being online has positive advantages the livestream from the minster was excellent lots of cameras meaning there were angles one can never see from a seat in the building i particularly liked seeing the close ups of the organist playing as well as of the preacher the archbishop of canterbury on what good soil means when sowing the gospel and the president the archbishop of york the birds eye views were beautiful the music was outstanding even by the minster s standards at the end as the processions left the camera was facing towards the great west door which suddenly opened letting in a blast of sunlight and a reminder of the greater world in which our church activities are set this was appropriate to the work of synod in the afternoon which was focused on the global climate emergency we heard a presentation on a new document offering a theology of the environment hope for all creation then there was the final approval stage of the festival of creation in christ first sunday in september and commemoration of the 21 martyrs of libya 15 february i discussed these which are part of synching our calendar with those of other christian churches at an earlier stage of the progress of this new liturgy through synod the title of the first one has changed and then another presentation on the route map to net zero carbon for the c of e by 2030 agreed in 2022 you may have been wondering how this is getting on it is now running to 2034 and an extra 40 million has been allocated for that period and more money for the next two funding periods some of this funding is from government and local communities our funding attracts outside funders the money is used to fund energy audits and to support capital works projects air source heat pumps solar panels etc particularly in struggling parishes we heard that the c of e has 30 000 buildings needing attention churches cathedrals schools and clergy housing a third of churches are now part of the eco church initiative reduction in emissions is about 3 7 each year compare the national trust which is aiming for 5 and a key point made in the presentation and in the speeches from the floor was that saving money on fuel use releases money for mission we reconvened after supper for the debate on palestine this was based on a motion brought by the carlisle diocesan synod back in 2021 but which the business committee has only now managed to put on the agenda the motion laments the loss of lives on both sides and calls for solidarity with palestinian christians in non violent resistance and for peace for all people of israel and the occupied palestinian territory we heard how our silence is damaging to the palestinian church the motion asks us to challenge both anti semitism and anti muslim hatred and to review our investment policies as a church now that the international court of justice has declared occupation of palestinian territory illegal you could tell this was a very important and challenging motion because the archbishop of canterbury was called to speak first there were lots of amendments which took us up to the time scheduled to end for the evening 21 45 after some agenda juggling this morning monday the business committee found space to continue the debate at 9 00 with the archbishop of york as the first speaker both archbishops like many others who spoke have visited the holy land and can speak with authority stewart fyfe who moved the motion in summing up the debate said that frightened christians in palestine are wondering whether the world still sees them the motion as amended passed after a counted vote by houses which means that the names of who voted which way will eventually be in the public domain i voted in favour a very large number abstained the figures were bishops yes 25 no 0 abstentions 5 clergy yes 115 no 20 abstentions 30 laity yes 113 no 27 abstentions 35 share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook email a link to a friend opens in new window email share on reddit opens in new window reddit like loading posted in general synod tagged environment palestine york minster leave a comment synod at home 1 posted on july 12 2026 by fluff35 as i have already said on this blog i am doing the july 2026 synod by zoom this is my first experience of zoom synod and it s not easy despite the very good online access to debates even with whatsapp i miss the contact with people with whom i ve been working for five years but not being there for social time means i have more time to write about what happened at synod and i know there are some of you who appreciate that first though to give you a flavour of what i am doing here is my approach to being on zoom for the best part of five days i decided to follow the model which our local baptist church has used for its group supporting older people my mum used to attend the group because it was a good change of scene and although she wasn t always entirely enthusiastic about the content one thing which she enjoyed very much was the annual holiday at home event this took place over a few days with a theme so if the venue for the holiday was france you d turn up every morning and there would be posters of the eiffel tower and vineyards on the walls a quiz on french towns french themed food for lunch a singalong to frère jacques you get the picture and eiffel tower keyrings and macarons in the goodie bags at the end my mum s favourite part was always the goodie bag so synod at home cooked breakfast essential so i fried up some things outside in the garden access to a life saving ice cream from a vending machine i managed to find some ice creams in the depressingly thin heatwave pickings at the local supermarket excellent range of cold meats and fish and salad at lunch fridge stocked i haven t been able to replicate things like a dodgy smell and or unidentified insect life in the shower or finding no hot water in my room or a very uncomfortable mattress with the odd spring coming out nor more sadly can i duplicate the tiny desserts in shot glasses one of york university s best catering offerings although i have always found the food very good all round nor can i replicate the fringe meetings over 40 of them scheduled before breakfast over lunch and after dinner i have never been much of a one for the pre breakfast ones but it s a pity to miss some of the other items on offer this time some offer useful briefings others introduce members to new things and others are simply fun i am sad to miss the one put on by a group of survivors from newcastle diocese jagged edges but i have the book that they put together and wrote about it here missing fringes that comment about missing fringes doesn t apply to the one i would most definitely miss and not just because it s in that pre breakfast slot the one being put on tomorrow monday by christian concern featuring speakers who believe that god has changed their sexual identity changed towards heterosexuality naturally it s apparently a one way process before synod started there was considerable discussion of this event should it be allowed particularly bearing in mind that in 2017 synod passed a motion rejecting conversion practices some of our members have been through these originally there was also going to be a display in addition to the fringe on a table in the exhibition area after the matter was raised with the archbishops while the fringe remains on the agenda but with a different title the display has been banned although from various whatsapp groups i saw that a version of this display turned up briefly outside the debating chamber on friday and some people were shouting about apostate priests outside the chamber and stand up for biblical marriage i assume they don t mean polygamy on saturday i m not sure how that is considered ok relevant to this is a question i put in during friday s question session it s question 13 the publication date of the short resource for churches and local ministry teams lord teach us to pray prayer in pastoral settings and guidelines for good practice produced by faoc has been delayed several times in the last few years it is intended as a resource for churches and local ministry teams as praying with others is an area in which good practice urgently needs to be established how firm is the current publication date of 28 january 2028 the written response from the bishop of gibraltar in europe as chair of the faith and order commission was the publication timeline for lord teach us to pray has been extended in order to allow for further consultation with people who have lived experience of abuse in a church context this has indicated the need for some revisions which are now complete while the final elements of the publication process lie with church house publishing at present those involved are confident that the publication date will not be delayed any further which all sounds good of course the resource needs to draw on those with lived experience of abuse once the online system had successfully connected to one of my four mic options tense aspect of synod at home i asked a supplementary which referred back to the disputed fringe and display i pointed out the relevance to this of the issue about how we can pray with one another in a way which avoids coercion meaning that this delayed book is now even more important as the revisions are complete can church house publishing be approached to expedite publication the answer was a statement that it would be published as soon as possible i do wonder whether that still means january 2028 debates so far apart from a couple of other supplementary questions i ve been silent although i ve been present for all the agenda items so far doing synod at home means i can refill my water bottle nip to the loo and immerse my feet in a bowl of cold water whenever i feel like it major wins after an address from the archbishop of york summing up what he felt about the last five years of synod friday s debate on affirming neurodiversity was excellent with people sharing their experiences and those of their family members the motion asks for dioceses to have neurodiversity champions and for all of us to help neurodivergent people to flourish in local contexts we heard about training being led by neurodivergent people ...
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