Updated
The questions, and answers, for this week’s meeting of the Church of England’s General Synod are now available here. Supplementary questions will be taken on Friday at 6.00 pm.
An extra item has been added to the agenda regarding the late Duke of Edinburgh, and this has resulted in changes to the timings of other items. The latest timetable is here.
Update
The timetable has been revised again to add a presidential address. This version is here.
Question 55 is a near duplication of one that was asked in February. Mrs Kat Alldread (Derby) to ask the Chair of the House of Bishops: Q55 What is the best estimate for the financial costs to conclusion of the Makin review into the allegations relating to the conduct of the late John Smyth QC? The Bishop of Huddersfield to reply on behalf of the Chair of the House of Bishops: A There is no measure that can estimate the true impact of the horrific abuse conducted by John Smyth on victims/survivors and the Church of England. As with any Independent… Read more »
“Yes Minister” comes to mind
It includes the word “ financial” and it is still being evaded. Why should not the ordinary members of the Church of England know what the cover up by the ReNew Constituency of John Smyth’s crimes has cost the ordinary people in the pews? Those leaders are spending a lot of money building alternative power structures within the Church whilst dumping the costs of the investigation of their corrupt culture on everyone else. It is outrageous that they do so and doubly outrageous than an anonymous “somebody” says that the elected representatives of the people cannot know the cost. We cannot… Read more »
There ought to be a mechanism to hold bishops in contempt if they clearly evade answering a question.
“It is not our practice to publish the cost of reviews.”
– Suggested question – “Why is it not the practice and when will this unhelpful practice cease?”
Through the centuries down to today countless people have given to the Church financially. There is a duty for those who make decisions about spending such money to do so openly and clearly. A transparent process is called for if there is to be trust.
Question 28. This refers to the LLF Next Steps Group and its subsidiary Reference Group. A URL is provided in the answer, but this does not go directly to the list of names. They can be found from the following slightly more precise link, but even then you will need to scroll down a while to get to the list of names. https://www.churchofengland.org/resources/living-love-and-faith/living-love-and-faith-next-steps#na To save readers the trouble, I copy below the list of names as it stood at 15.22 on 21 April. Andrew Lightbown Tracey Huizinga Julie Withers Simon Burrows James Nash Rachel Cook Emily Watson Jan Moore Esther… Read more »
The Presidents have now added a further additional item, namely a Presidential Address by the Archbishop of York, allocated 10 minutes in the revised timetable.
I wonder if this might be a late attempt to make sure that the Anti-Racism report is at least mentioned in the course of this synod gathering, as there is otherwise no specific agenda item dealing with it.
I am sure you are right.
I fear that will arrive “ a day late and a dollar short” as my US friends say.
The answer to Q74 is sadly evasive. I don’t generally follow Twitter, but even I was aware of the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the “we’ve loved every minute of it” tweet – many people commented on the tone-deaf nature of that comment, and quite a few asked for it to be removed. Yet here we read the Bishop of Lichfield justifying it. Why is it that the C of E is so incapable of acknowledging that it might have got something wrong?
In fact, it strikes me that the answers to both Q9 and Q74 fail to address a serious point: who, ultimately, is accountable for what is said on social media in the name of the C of E. The answer to Q74 refers to “the relevant owner of the proposed comment”, which makes sense if a tweet is going out in the name of the an individual such as the Archbishop of Canterbury, but makes no sense in relation to a twitter account under the name of “The Church of England”. The failure of anyone to apologise for or remove… Read more »
I am a firm royalist but I think dedicating 25 minutes to HRH the Duke of Edinburgh is ill-judged. Unlike The Queen he had no formal role within the Church of England so being deferential to his civil nobility looks wrong. The first shall be last and the last first.
He was patron (?) of the Central Readers Council.
I read the questions and read the answers and for so many answers it seems to be there there, don’t you worry about that, leave it to the people in charge and we aren’t going to give you an answer to that question. So not much in the way of transparency in General Synod – the mushroom method of management continues.
As Chomsky says: “Authority, whether political, economic or religious, that cannot meet a strong test of rational justification is illegitimate”
I read the questions and so called answers with increasing frustration. How to say something which means nothing. If this is the level of response from the powers that be it is little wonder there is no real action on any of the major reports, damage and issues facing the church. But I guess those answering would have to face a few home truths so may be its easier to not answer in the first place.