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description=Reflecting on sexuality and gender identity in the Church of England;

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luff35 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 an excellent example of going beyond even nothing about us without us everyone who spoke was engaging including rebecca chapman whose neurodivergent son was present in the public gallery and the archbishop of canterbury who spoke about the effect her dyslexia had had on her life more on that here confusing prostate and prostrate was not even the half of it i put in to speak on the communications private member s motion on saturday but wasn t called the upshot of that debate was to reject the motion which was going to be the thrust of my speech had it happened the work on the central website and on a church near you acny has already happened and we don t need to spend around 70k on another review while changes are about to happen i had been hoping to say something about acny and its potential for example it has tags for accessible loos hearing loop work with children and use of the book of common prayer as well as use of the prayers of love and faith but nothing to indicate whether the parish accepts the full priestly ministry of women we also had some legislative business and we saw the new clergy conduct rules through their next stage replacing the clergy discipline measure these will triage complaints into grievances misconduct serious misconduct the aim is to make the process more transparent and quicker recognising that delays are painful for everyone involved we then had some more tweaks to the election rules before the presentation on promoting unity in our nation the theme was resourcing churches for debates on religion and nationalism and democracy the focus was on seeking each other s welfare i ll be honest and i know i am not alone in this among synod members i don t like presentations and there s another two scheduled for sunday even without sitting in a hot debating chamber in york or a hot room at home for the three hours that the unity one took hearing speakers in person or by video and breaking into small groups for discussion doesn t seem to get us anywhere some of the stories we heard were interesting but the overall impression was of being talked at the supporting paper made good comments about wider social factors leading to division loss of trust in national institutions not just the church and the decline in local institutions like working men s clubs welfare halls liberal clubs trades halls and so on that gave ordinary people regular contact and reciprocal relationships with their neighbours the result is that many people now lack what previous generations took for granted a place outside the home and workplace where they encountered others as equals and learned the ordinary disciplines of shared life how to speak in a group listen to disagreement organise a shared event make a decision with others good analysis but then what there is an official summary of the event here but as usual i wonder what the value of us sharing stories is beyond the synod chamber i suppose it did at least point us to some resources among them the excellent churches together in england resources kingdom over nation on to sunday watch this space i shall be watching the york minster service in the morning online and expect to be blown away as usual by the beauty of the music 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 archbishop of canterbury communication conversion practices dyslexia neurodivergence ordination of women prayers of love and faith unity 2 comments learning to love and be loved bishops bodies and my private member s motion posted on july 4 2026 by fluff35 i ve been silent here since the end of may and in that piece i commented that it s over two months since i last posted here and readers may be wondering whether i m still alive now we are in july regular readers may be asking that question again when i wrote that blog post i was coming out of a month of resting due to pneumonia i remain impressed by the excellent work by my gp in diagnosing prescribing and giving me clear orders on what i could and could not do i described in that piece how i had found myself being elected to the crown nominations commission to find the next bishop of my diocese and ended with the comment that because of the requirements of confidentiality imposed by cnc membership silence will fall the cnc continues its work we are now at the stage at which each member can mandate one candidate to be considered for the long list along with a couple of other suggested candidates who will only appear on the long list if the archbishops think they fit the profile and i think that s all i am allowed to say you can be assured that the standard process is happening and we shortlist in october acting bishops because of being on general synod i know many other people who are involved in the processes to find their own diocese s next bishop it does seem extraordinary with 42 dioceses just how many of these are in the cnc process at any one time there s a handy list maintained by the excellent peter owen here which shows 10 current vacancies and because acting bishops despite carrying the responsibilities of a diocesan bishop while there s a vacancy can t vote in either the house of bishops or general synod this has a knock on of denying their dioceses full episcopal representation on these bodies too among the papers issued ahead of the imminent july meeting of synod is gs misc 1458 which addresses these points about acting bishops the paper states that the house of bishops standing committee intends to bring draft legislation to the february 2027 meeting of synod to enable them to vote it can t just happen synod s not like that and in this case an amending canon needs to be brought what s interesting here is that when we discussed these plans earlier in the year as the convocations of canterbury and of york technical language for synod s elected clergy meeting according to their province and as the house of laity voting was close for example in the convocation of york there were 21 in favour of change 20 against 2 abstentions what s the objection i don t have any objection to dioceses in vacancy still having full episcopal representation and i didn t hear anything persuasive on the against side in that house of laity meeting so i am not the best person to ask meanwhile for july synod once again we ll have acting bishops present who can speak but not vote including bishop gavin acting during the oxford vacancy bodies which brings me back to the cnc the oxford diocesan 6 met for a getting to know each other lunch at the start of june as i did the short walk home my hip a body part that has previously never malfunctioned felt rather stiff and sort of grating i continued my normal day and my normal 8000 or so steps hoping the hip would move more easily with a bit of exercise but that night i had the most appalling pain i didn t sleep and first thing in the morning had no option but to phone 111 it was a weekend so 111 sent me to the out of hours service at a local community hospital and the doctor there sent me to a e for an x ray nothing was found the a e doctor said it was a sprained hip which seemed an odd diagnosis as i had done nothing to it no bangs falls twists by the monday still in agony that was untouched by regular painkillers i saw a gp who immediately put me on opioids and said an mri was needed two weeks on from that and doing better on the strong pain relief i saw an orthopaedic specialist who put me on crutches and fixed up an mri which went on to show a significant amount of fluid in the joint blood tests came back fine so now i am waiting to see a rheumatologist to discuss what is going on here the appointment is for the last day of synod i am certainly not risking being delayed in travel back from york and missing this precious appointment but in any case i know that i can t possibly cope with the walking or the sitting at york so for the first time i shall attend synod by zoom on to july synod so far and the run up to each synod is a long one it feels like synod as usual assorted zooms giving and receiving briefings but it s not really as usual because this time i am bringing a private member s motion pmm that this synod affirm that there are no fundamental objections to being in a committed faithful intimate same sex relationship and that such a relationship can be entirely compatible with christian discipleship as soon as the wording of this was published it became the topic for several blog posts by conservative individuals and groups some compared it with the higton motion of 1987 i was on synod for that debate and have written about it here as well as commissioning a piece from another then member of synod terry louden...