THE
P RTAL
March 2016
Preparing to
“flex their
muscles”?
Page 11
Anglican
News
The Revd Paul Benfield maps out how General Synod
will deal with contentious matters of concern?
The General Synod met
in London from Monday 15th to Wednesday 17th February. It
was the first time that the newly elected Synod had really got down to business, as the short November
sessions were largely taken up with the royal inauguration and introducing new members to the current
programme of Renewal and Reform.
report by the Church of England – Church of Scotland
Joint Study Group. This report had caused immense
hurt and pain to the Scottish Episcopal Church, which
felt it had been sidelined as the Anglican Church in
Scotland and should have been more involved. The
matter had been badly handled, for which apology
was made, but it was difficult to know quite what had
gone on as Mark Russell, Chief Executive of the Church
Army, and the Archbishop of Canterbury seemed to be
Sexuality was not officially on the agenda, but it kept saying different things about the views of the Primus.
being mentioned. In a good debate on the impact of
An attempt to amend the motion to delay matters
sanctions on benefit claimants initiated by the Leeds
Diocesan Synod, Jayne Ozanne, the openly lesbian failed and in the end the Columba Declaration,
former member of the Archbishops’ Council, told consisting of mutual Acknowledgments and
us that she had been on benefits while she came to Commitments between the two churches, was
terms with her sexuality. The fact that she had been approved, but with 50 people voting against
on benefits was relevant to the debate. Her reasons for and 49 people abstaining. Given that those in
support numbered only 243 this was not a ringing
being on benefits were not.
endorsement of an ecumenical agreement.
In questions, the House of Bishops was asked what
The other debate which generated concern was
arrangements the House has in place for a member or
members to speak to the media on its behalf in relation that about the resourcing of ministerial education.
to issues of human sexuality, in particular, to explain The proposals had concerned the college principals
the teaching position of the Church and the statements as they thought that they put residential training at
of the House, and to correct any misunderstandings. I risk for older candidates in the 30-40 age range. They
think the questioner was concerned that certain liberal were anxious that with funding delegated to dioceses
they would be tempted to send ordinands on cheaper
bishops seem to get much media coverage.
part-time courses. The motion was amended so that
In reply, the Bishop of Sheffield said that it was a the Theological Education Institutions should develop
question of balancing long planned diaries against with the dioceses a shared understanding of ministry
requests which are inevitably labelled ‘urgent’. and ministerial education, with the Archbishops’
Furthermore, the media are not bound to approach a Council reporting back by July 2017 on progress
diocesan or national communications officer prior to towards achieving these objectives.
running stories on human sexuality, as they will seek
I think many members came away thinking that the
polarising views rather than reconciling voices in the
Establishment was trying to stitch us up even more
mistaken belief that makes for a better story.
than usual and that we were determined to flex our
There were two contentious debates. One concerned a muscles for future fights.
The Archbishop of Canterbury gave a substantial
Presidential Address, largely concentrating on the
meeting of the Anglican primates at Canterbury in
January. He told us that, in open voting by a show of
hands, there was unanimous agreement for walking
together rather than walking apart. This was despite
the great differences of opinion and belief on matters
such as sexuality.
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