Updated Friday 24 June to include second circulation papers
Papers in the first circulation All papers for next month’s meeting of General Synod on 8-12 July are now online here in agenda order. Here is a list in numerical order, with a note of the day scheduled for their consideration.
zip file of all first circulation papers
zip file of all second circulation papers
zip file of all the papers from both circulations
GS 2014A – Draft Measure and Pastoral Amendment Measure [Saturday]
GS 2014Y – Report by the Revision Committee
GS 2023 – Agenda
GS 2024 – Report by the Business Committee [Friday]
GS 2025 – Appointments to the Archbishops’ Council [Friday]
GS 2026 – Nurturing and Discerning Senior Leaders: Report from the Development And Appointments Group of the House of Bishops [Friday]
GS 2027 – Draft Legislative Reform Measure [Saturday]
GS 2027x – Explanatory Memorandum
GS 2028 – Draft Inspection of Churches Measure [Saturday]
GS 2028x – Explanatory Memorandum
GS 2029 – Draft Amending Canon No.36 [Saturday]
GS 2029x – Explanatory Memorandum
GS 2030 – Draft Statute Law (Repeals) Measure [Saturday]
GS 2030x – Explanatory Memorandum
GS 2031 – Draft Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Care of Churches Measure [Saturday]
GS 2031x – Explanatory Memorandum plus Orgins & Destinations
GS 2032 – Draft Pensions Measure [Saturday]
GS 2032x – Explanatory Memorandum
GS 2033 – Clergy Discipline Rules 2016 [Saturday]
GS 2033x – Explanatory Memorandum
GS 2034 – Suspension Appeals (Churchwardens etc) Rules 2016 [Saturday]
GS 2034x – Explanatory Memorandum
GS 2035 – Amending Code of Practice under Clergy Discipline Measure 2003 [Saturday]
GS 2035x – Explanatory Memorandum
GS 2036 – Legal Officers (Annual Fees) Order 2016 [Saturday]
GS 2037 – Ecclesiastical Judges, Legal Officers and others (Fees) Order 2016 [Saturday]
GS 2036-7x – Explanatory Memorandum
GS 2038 – A Vision for Renewal and Reform [Saturday]
GS 2039 – A Church of England Vision for Education: a Report from the Education Division [Saturday]
GS 2040 – Archbishops’ Council’s Annual Report [Saturday]
GS 2041 – Archbishops’ Council’s Budget [Saturday]
Church Commissioners’ Annual Report [Friday]
Other Papers
GS Misc 1138 – Giving for life Re-ignited
GS Misc 1139 – FAOC Report on Communion and Disagreement.
Further resources can be found by clicking here
GS Misc 1140 – Draft Clergy Discipline Measure 2003 – Code of Practice as amended
GS Misc 1141 – Clergy Discipline Rules as amended by CDA Rules 2016
GS Misc 1142 – Audit Committee Annual Report
GS Misc 1143 – Clergy Discipline Commission Annual Report
GS Misc 1144 – House of Bishops Summary of Decisions
GS Misc 1145 – Anglican-Methodist Joint Covenant Advocacy and Monitoring Group
GS Misc 1146 – Report of the Archbishops’ Council’s Activities
GS Misc 1147 – Crown Nominations Commission Report
Shared Conversations Material
Timetable – Sunday afternoon – Tuesday lunchtime
Reflecting on the ‘Grace and Dialogue’ booklet… “If disagreement is inevitable then we have to learn to do it better.” Yes, disagreement is inevitable. The Church has clear internal disagreement, and views that can be conscientiously held, that contradict each other. The issue is: since this disagreement exists and isn’t going away, how can we handle the situation better, because at present we are handling it very badly and the Church suffers as a result. “Dialogue is consciously developed in a way that helps us to respect each other, and to remember what we hold in common and what we… Read more »
The Shared Conversations booklet is a very useful resource. In contemplating it, however, I am uneasy as not once does it mention truth. This is where I’ve found speaking and listening processes hard in the past: the recognition that the search for truth, especially God’s truth, means an agreement to disagree is in fact an end to dialogue and a loss of fellowship.
“This is really important: the possibility that God’s concern in this is not primarily ‘who is right’ but ‘who can open up to grace and love’.” That’s your view. But what if God’s concern is to see us fight for what we believe to be right, no matter how unpopular that makes us? As Peter S suggests, it should be about striving for the truth, not seeking some compromise. If the Church accepts some priests who will marry same sex couples and some who don’t, all we have done is change from the church being possibly wrong to some priests… Read more »
The design of the Grace and Dialogue booklet is hideous. This is not a trivial point: in a week in which there has been a lot of coverage of Transport for London’s investment in restoring and renewing Johnston’s iconic font so that its beauty can work in the 21st century, the slipshod choice of a font better suited to a badly typeset leaflet describing the history of a minor provincial church is very telling. In this, as so much else, there is a lack of love. There is random use and misuse of dashes of various length, and inattention to… Read more »
Interested Observer, that’s the least of it. Both archbishops are manifestly against same sex marriage and have a vested interest in slow dialogue which cannot change anything, and an even greater vested interest in avoiding debate which might challenge the status quo. They might not see it but it looks like a significant conflict of interest and, as an observer, having read the Grace and Dialogue booklet for me the shared conversation process now lacks any credibility. I am not suggesting the two archbishops are deliberately slowing things down. It is enough that they are failing to demonstrate any imperative… Read more »
Interested Observer: I agree entirely about the presentation of the document, and I found the simple prose irritating and patronizing. It struck me as a very different style and tone from the documents sent out for the Regional SCs.
However, the ‘play nicely, children’ emotional intelligence points do need to be made and I’m sure plenty of us could benefit from them. I include myself in that!
“However, the ‘play nicely, children’ emotional intelligence points do need to be made and I’m sure plenty of us could benefit from them.” But isn’t there an enormous danger that will mean that the real hurt, distress and fear that LGBT people feel will be muted in its expression? I’ve recently been the victim of an homophobic crime. The call handlers when I speak with them believe I am an obvious victim of crime and will now escalate it to a senior officer but the attitude I got from the constables attending was that LGBT people need to expect being… Read more »
Kate, I am so angry that you’ve been the victim of homophobic crime and that the police you dealt with were so lacking in sympathy. Everyone in the church and beyond needs to know that being LGBT+ can still mean being treated appallingly in many aspects of life and indeed can make people vulnerable to abuse and violence. The way some in the church have been acting like the atrocity in Orlando was ‘terrorism’ rather than an attack on the LGBT+ community shows that they don’t want to name this for what it is. I have lots of reservations about… Read more »
Helen
I wish you had written that booklet. You have a good way with words.
Kate, this inability of societies to deal with prejudices like homophobia is a blight on all our lives. Sorry we don’t do better. I was interested in your earlier comment about truth. I suspect the reason the leaflet made no mention of it is because the word has lost its connection, at least in most church thinking, with any essential meaning. Talk of truth has become too ambiguous to usefully communicate. The most useful meaning for truth I’ve found is “an accurate description of reality”, where reality means “how things are”. How things are always has a context. It may… Read more »
David, what an insightful comment. And maybe that’s why CofE has got so bogged down in things like the ordination of women and same sex marriage: decisions have become about somehow reconciling competing subjectivity – and shared conversations don’t just typify that, they actively promote subjectivity as a virtue – rather than attempting to find an objective truth.
David – thanks for your comments on truth. In my post I was referring to truth as “how things are meant to be” or perhaps better “what we believe God intends for us”.
The link to GS2030X leads to GS2031X. It is also wrong the Synod site, but can be reached from the zip file.
The link to GS 2030x has now been corrected on the Synod site, and above.