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Andrew Goddard writes: The inability to share a common cup due to Covid-19 has resulted in the withdrawal of wine at Holy Communion and the claim that administration of wine in individual cups is contrary to law in the Church of England. This was reaffirmed in answer to a Synod question on Saturday. This article highlights … Continue Reading
One of the most important debates in General Synod last week was on children and young people in the Church of England—or rather, why they aren’t. The paper we were offered summarised the analysis of where young people are in the Church based on church attendance returns, and built on a question asked at a … Continue Reading
The Church of England is currently engaged in discussion and action which is pulling in rather different directions in relation to the importance of its clergy, and these debates were exemplified in the latest meeting of the General Synod in York over the weekend. One of last debates, held on Tuesday morning, concerned the follow-up … Continue Reading
Near the beginning of each meeting of General Synod, there is a session called Questions, where any member can put any question to any part of the Church. It is often interesting, and sometimes controversial, as it allows members to ask the awkward questions that some might wish to avoid. It is also something of … Continue Reading
Last December, the House of Bishops issued guidance on the use of the liturgy for Reaffirmation of Baptismal Faith in order to ‘mark gender transition’ in a ‘celebratory’ way. I wrote then identifying a wide range of problems that it raised in relation to the use of liturgy and scripture, the lack of evidence of … Continue Reading
The announcement on Tuesday of the House of Bishops’ guidance for the welcome of transgender people in the Church arose from a diocesan motion brought to General Synod in July 2017. There were several things about this debate which indicated how problematic the whole process was bound to be. First, it was brought by Chris … Continue Reading
One of the great reliefs of the last sessions of General Synod in York (on July 6th to 10th) was the absence of any acrimonious debates about sexuality in the main chamber. The Business Committee had taken the bold and commendable decision that, in the light of the planned teaching document on sexuality, any private … Continue Reading
Andrew Goddard writes: Motions come for consideration before the General Synod of the Church of England by various means. One such is a Private Member’s Motion (PMM) being proposed by a member of Synod and receiving the support of a significant body of Synod (it needs to be over 100 members) and being included in the … Continue Reading
Last July’s General Synod passed a motion brought by Chris Newlands on behalf of Blackburn Diocese, expressing the Church’s welcome of transgender people and asking the House of Bishops to consider whether they should offer some sort of liturgy to mark the transition of a person’s sex identity. In January, the House of Bishops responded … Continue Reading
General Synod of the Church of England met last week from Thursday to Saturday, and it was markedly less traumatic than some previous meetings. There were some challenging issues—the main ones for debate being the proposal for moving towards interchangeability of ministry with the Methodist Church, a report on safeguarding issues, and a motion on … Continue Reading
Responses to the report Ministry and Mission in Covenant, proposing closer union between the Church of England and the Methodist Church (and discussed in my previous post), have reignited the responses that were made to the earlier scheme in 1969, which was agreed by the Methodists but rejected by the Church of England’s Church Assembly (the … Continue Reading
Ian Paul: theologian, author, speaker, academic consultant. Associate Senior Research Fellow, Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology; Associate Minister, St Nic's, Nottingham; Managing Editor, Grove Books; member of General Synod and Archbishops' Council. Mac user; chocoholic. Tweets at @psephizo
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