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ch in churches which do not accept the ordination of women and describes working alongside colleagues from both the anglo catholic and conservative evangelical parts of the church it all sounds polite enough but of course that was 2018 before she moved to the london diocese let alone was chosen for canterbury here as elsewhere my impression is that things have become worse regardless of the 5 gps in recent years we have heard archbishop sarah being more open about the microaggressions which she has experienced as an ordained woman in leadership i was at synod in february 2025 when on the podium she was visibly upset as she recalled these and i point you to a particularly offensive piece on a website where the male of course author talks about the rule of women accuses her of ideological delusion and describes anglican apostasy of course as i ve described in a much earlier piece on this blog if women cry it s supposed to be evidence of their weakness or of emotional manipulation but if men cry then it s shocking and serious and shows they have the maturity to express their feelings unless they are gay men in which case their tears like those of women don t count but are just sentimentality three spaces faoc 2018 is also interesting when we consider bishop martyn snow s advocacy while llf lead bishop for what he called three spaces in the c of e around sexuality faoc 2018 asked what it means within a single church to hold distinct sacramental and collegial spaces in which not all who participate in one can participate in the other in the same way p 45 indeed and the separation of particular groups from the rest of the church of england that was institutionalised over women s ordained ministry has already raised questions which move us even further apart from each other as charlie bell asked in 2020 if the sacrament of ordination cannot be accepted from a non traditionalist bishop can any of the sacraments be received from them for some of those in the church of england the answer seems to be a no which extends to the eucharist this is and has been very much apparent at general synod when the eucharist is celebrated at the start of a day of meetings i discussed here what bishop martyn proposed in june 2024 a space for those who are absolutely committed to the present doctrine of marriage a space for those who want to see some development of current arrangements and a large space for those who are undecided or confused by the whole debate and see no need to make such a choice at this time three spaces in one church what that meant was never clear to me were parishes supposed to vote for their preferred space why did he assume that the middle space would be so large what would it mean in practical terms to be in one or the other space how would people move across the lines between them doing the things of the church apart from each other is a major concern which has become far more pressing now that it is common for conservatives to identify some bishops as false teachers back to faoc 2018 which contains a useful warning it may be tempting for the majority to think that were the minority to leave or disappear the problem posed by their existence would be resolved and all the energy unfortunately required to manage it be liberated for more productive endeavours it may be tempting for the minority to think that the more they can separate themselves from the majority and insulate themselves from its influence the more secure their survival will be p 41 tempting but wrong separation is not the solution and what next for the 5 gps five is one of those churchy numerals i ve already mentioned those five marks of mission but here s the punchline we don t have to leave it at five my authority for that is once again faoc the final question posed to the reader demands our attention as we think about difference if you could do so is there a sixth guiding principle you would now like to add faoc 2018 p 53 even in the early days of thinking about them they were not as set in stone as some people now seem to think we need to be honest about what doesn t work about what has become worse as the years of trying to live with them have rolled on and about how their legacy hangs over us as we think about lgbtqia inclusion and how to live with difference there we not only can but urgently should be discussing how we can add to the five something which would make a difference in the light of what has happened in the decade for which they have now reigned 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 living in love and faith tagged archbishop of canterbury archbishop of york charlie bell eucharist homophobia homosexuality judith maltby martyn snow misogyny ordination of women sarah mullally women bishops women priests 3 comments consider the lilies on changing one s mind posted on february 15 2026 by fluff35 yes i know that is a dahlia not a lily but please bear with me i m back from another 5 day synod as ever much as i enjoy seeing familiar faces and learning new things it s great to be back so far i ve been there in person for every day of every meeting and each day i go to as much of the discussion as i can mostly in the debating chamber itself but sometimes because it s hot and stuffy in there and i don t feel comfortable in such large groups watching from the quiet room where the sound and vision feature but without distraction and often fringe meetings too and since i was speaking at one and hosting another that meant two lunchtimes accounted for first a personal comment but one which also relates to people being unaware of what being on synod entails i was irritated by comments on another member s facebook feed expressing a lot of crossness at empty seats in the chamber those commenting seemed unaware that some people were watching and voting on zoom or watching from the quiet room but also failed to recognise that those attending in person are human and there are commonly no scheduled tea pee breaks from 9 12 45 or from 2 7 the exception was the break in the middle of the long debate on living in love and faith on the thursday when tea stations were set up on a long table in the tea room so that we could all drink a paper cup of it before going back in i do my best but i need to keep hydrated and doing my best included being there for the eucharist first thing on the wednesday with archbishop sarah as celebrant the empty seats there probably due to some people not respecting her authority and others regarding her and other bishops as false teachers not much has changed here the business this time around covered many areas that affect us all some progress towards independent safeguarding the care system mental health with more support recommended for clergy on how best to support those with mental health needs poverty 40 years on from the faith in the city report fees for burials synod rejecting attempts to raise these very significantly funding the communities with the lowest incomes an update on plans to encourage working class people into ministry and of course living in love and faith llf on that as i said when speaking to my amendment the problem that it is too much of an end for some and not enough of an end for others i was hoping to amend the motion so that the new working group will not have the usual 50 50 pro anti split which i believe is a recipe for stagnation as well as injecting some urgency into their meetings and some ownership by synod of what they are going to do like all other amendments in this five hour debate it was rejected because we voted by houses and the house of bishops largely followed the archbishop of york s call to oppose them all although my amendment had by far the most support from bishops 12 in favour then we voted on the motion as unamended the most significant part of it being to set up this working group but a smaller one than in previous attempts that motion was passed by nearly a 66 majority overall so although the llf brand has ended discussions go on as i said in my speech a little less conversation and a little more action is needed in the rest of this blog post i m going to reflect on just one item and it s not one which was at the top of my list of debates when i arrived at synod this item was the worcester diocesan synod motion on sustainable church flowers it was mentioned in the first substantial debate of the session which was as usual on the agenda itself taking off from the report of the business committee church flowers ahead of synod there had been many no really comments around business committee s decision to schedule this debate how could church flowers merit an hour of discussion as anticipated a speech was made in the debate on the agenda criticising that decision i joined in the applause for that speech why talk about flowers when gaza is not on the agenda until july what does that say about our priorities and yet by the end of the week i was a convert the motion in question was based on the sustainable church flowers movement and originated in st bartholomew s harpley a parish in worcestershire the movement has many dimensions it s about the environment avoiding damaging pesticides and unnecessary plastic and the release of microplastics into the seas it s about the planet the use of water in drought affected countries to grow flowers for export it s about working conditions who grows these flowers and how are they treated but it s also about beauty and life and fragility floral foam is the enemy chicken wire is one of many environmentally friendly ways of keeping flowers in place in the debate so many good reasons were offered for this motion being on our agenda yes it could have been a memo to parishes asking them to think about using seasonal flowers and sustainable methods of display but by coming up from one parish through deanery and diocesan synod to general synod the sustainable church flowers motion demonstrated precisely the way that we can amplify the voices of our parishes their concerns and their experiences it celebrated the work of the largely invisible people who week by week decorate our church buildings many of them women many of them in the older age groups by asking how we arranged flowers before floral foam it also recovers lost knowledge and honours older people who can share this knowledge afresh and as was pointed out in the debate we can be angered by silence on gaza as well as angered by the damage we are doing to the environment they are not mutually exclusive there was a procedural motion to move to next business during the debate but it was defeated i wasn t the only convert in the room more than once in the debate people quoted jesus words consider the lilies of the field i was interested to see that the sustainable church flowers site has an excellent analysis of the origin of lilies as an easter flower showing how forced flowers out of season have huge costs for the environment there s something there about tradition and how it needs to be challenged in the light of new information i even stood to speak i wasn t called it probably didn t help that i had not put in a request to do so ahead of the debate i wanted to share a further flower related point from the mantra reduce reuse recycle when i married my husband in another church in our benefice there had been a funeral of a member of the armed forces a couple of days before his family asked if the flowers from that funeral could be reused in any way so our vicar called me i said yes of course my friends mostly from the baptist church one of them a professional florist using our wedding to train some other people new to this work rapidly rethought and wove those funeral flowers into their arrangements flowers can move from signs of mortality to signs of celebration it s just one aspect of flower power i was delighted to run into a group of parishioners from st bartholomew s harpley after the debate and to share my new enthusiasm with them i ve been reflecting on why i was converted to the importance of this motion it s partly about initial gut reactions versus learning more don t get me wrong i love flowers to the point where i post pictures on them on bluesky using the hashtag bloomscrolling my dahlia photos are particularly widely shared i m also a galantophile so this is one of my favourite seasons but i hadn t thought through the implications of this debate once i knew more i moved towards enthusiasm in that sense it s like my instant conversion to supporting the ordination of women to the priesthood many years ago when i was a deanery synod secretary taking notes as mary tanner addressed us and pointed out that the priest at the altar represents jesus s humanity not his maleness and i m just back from church talking to one of our churchwardens about the flowers in our church because she d seen this debate was coming up and had told our wonderful flower arrangers about it so from the parish to synod and from synod straight back to the parish normal church life has been informed and enhanced for me this debate was synod at its best 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 living in love and faith tagged environment house of bishops mary tanner ordination of women parish synod leave a comment february 2026 questions raised by synod questions posted on february 7 2026 by fluff35 the questions synod members are allowed to send in are answered by appropriate staff members and then circulated with those answers shortly before synod meets we meet on monday for a week so the answers came out yesterday another 106 pages of reading of the 258 questions this time around the ones attracting attention are those on project spire which are first in the list so there will be opportunities for supplementaries on them and those around the costs in money and time of the living in love and faith process i was one of two members asking about the financial cost of this the answer qs 94 95 is that from 2017 2025 llf cost 1 6 million that of course excludes those of us who offered our time to the work as for synodical time 42¼ hours have been spent on llf in synod since feb 2019 q 96 see also q 238 34 hours of those fell in this quinquennium and more hours to come next week there are two contenders for my personal award for the best question answer unlawful use of those parts ordained for generation the first is one of those what is sex questions synod is notoriously coy fond of euphemisms and of collective clutching of pearls here s q 228 following up on last july s synod binning of issues in human sexuality and replacing it with the guidelines for the profe...
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