Simon Cross Modern Church Looking for what is Becoming
Fergus Butler-Gallie Church Times Give us a quiche, and other church offerings
“Hospitality should be central to churches’ theology — even the dreaded bring-and-share lunch”
Andrew Graystone Prospect The Marshall Plan
“Hedge fund manager Paul Marshall is on a God-driven mission to transform the religious fabric of the nation-and he has the money to do it”
Bosco Peters Liturgy Who Distributes Communion?
Anon ViaMedia.News Mini-MBA Talent Pipeline Group, Module Seven: Managing Synods
3 CommentsPress release from the Church of England
Survey for initial response to Jay report
21/03/2024
A survey has been published today for anyone who wishes to make an initial response to the recommendations made by Professor Jay in her report on the Future of Church Safeguarding. The report from Professor Alexis Jay, former chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, IICSA, makes recommendations for a new independent safeguarding and scrutiny body for the Church of England. Professor Jay was commissioned by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to carry out this work in July 2023 and her report was published in February 2024.
Survey findings will be presented to the Wilkinson/Jay Response Group (see revised Terms of Reference) and will be available on the Church of England website. All survey responses are anonymous and no names or identifying details will be requested or produced. The survey closes on April 18.
Further information on safeguarding in the Church and independence
9 CommentsColin Coward Unadulterated Love The Zone of Interest – ways of thinking about God
Jonathan Chaplin ViaMedia.News The Bishops must be Bolder and Braver on Gaza
149 CommentsAndrew Brown Church Times Press: Telegraph sketches Jekyll-and-Hyde C of E
Madeleine Davies Church Times No churchwardens and vacant PCC posts: an investigation into the church volunteering crisis
[Church Times has lifted its paywall for the whole of March.]
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Living in Love and Faith and Together for the Church of England
Neil Elliot NumbersMatters Dioceses of the ACC – by numbers
79 CommentsThe Church of England has recently published its Parish Finance Statistics 2022. These provide the latest financial information, including:
Tables showing parish finances aggregated to diocese level are available as an excel file. Finance statistics for previous years, and other publications of the Research and Statistics Unit can be found on the resources, publications, and data page.
40 CommentsColin Coward Unadulterated Love Life in all its fullness
Zac Koons The Living Church A Bronze Serpent Processional Cross
152 CommentsAnon ViaMedia.News The Unbearable Lightness of Being General Synod
David Goodhew The Living Church The Church of England After COVID: Quo Vadis?
also online at Psephizo
Marcus Walker The Critic Dumbing down the priesthood
“Unless the Church reinstates rigorous college-based training for clerics, it will wither away”
Updated 7 March to add item 13 and 14
The electronic voting results from this month’s General Synod are now available online and are linked below, with links to the order papers containing the relevant texts.
Electronic voting results
Archbishops’ Commission of Families and Households (Order Paper IV)
Safeguarding Independence (Order Paper II)
Living in Love and Faith (Order Paper VI)
24 CommentsNews from the The Scottish Episcopal Church
5 CommentsThe Right Rev Kevin Pearson has announced today that he will retire as Bishop of Glasgow & Galloway on 31 August this year.
Bishop Kevin became the 15th Bishop of Glasgow & Galloway in July 2020 upon his translation from the Diocese of Argyll and The Isles…
Alex Frost ViaMedia.News Estates Evangelism: Justice on the Margins
Charlie Bell ViaMedia.News Finding a Way Through: February 2024
Tim Sumpter Church Times How Covid changed one vicar
Church Times has lifted its paywall for the whole of March.
Jeremy Pemberton From The Quire Inching Forwards?
Helen King sharedconversations Next business, anyone? LLF, Synod, February 2024
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love
140 CommentsHelen King sharedconversations Questions of fornication
Lisa Oakley University of Chester Response from Professor Lisa Oakley to the ‘Future of Church Safeguarding’ report recommendation 10 the removal of spiritual abuse
175 CommentsThis post will be updated as the meeting proceeds.
The Church of England’s General Synod is meeting this weekend. The timetable is here, the agenda is here and the papers are here.
House of Laity meeting
In addition the House of Laity will meet on Sunday evening.
Live video etc
All sessions are streamed live on YouTube and remain available to view afterwards. Links have been provided in advance.
There is an official Twitter account.
Order papers
Business done
Official press releases
Press reports and comment
Church Times
The Guardian
32 CommentsUpdated Friday to add a second Church Times article
Gavin Drake Church Abuse
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church The Future of Church Safeguarding – A look at the Jay Report
also online at Modern Church
Ruth Peacock Religion Media Centre Celebration but concern at proposed new CofE independent safeguarding
Francis Martin Church Times Jay calls for root-and-branch reform of church safeguarding
Simon Walsh Church Times Varied responses to Jay report on Church of England safeguarding
1 CommentThe Questions (and answers) for this weekend’s meeting of the Church of England’s General Synod were issued today. They can be found online here: Questions Notice Paper February 2024.
Questions will be taken in two groups; on Friday from 5.30pm to 7.00pm, and for about an hour on Saturday morning. There are 225 questions.
Update
There is a correction to the answer to Question 62 in Notice Paper 7.
22 CommentsUnadulterated Love ‘Valuing all God’s children – including trans people!
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Freeing the Church of England from Mental Slavery
Helen King ViaMedia.News Slouching Towards Synod
3 CommentsThe Bishop of Leicester has written to all members of the General Synod this morning, ahead of the LLF debate at Synod this coming weekend. The original is here and I haved copied the body of the letter below the fold.
0 CommentsThe Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Revd Dr Steven Croft, has announced with great sadness the unexpected death of his colleague, the Rt Revd Dr Alan Wilson, Bishop of Buckingham.
Paying tribute to Bishop Alan, Bishop Steven said: “Alan was a dear friend and colleague to many across the Diocese. Alan has deep friendships and pastoral relationships across both church and community in Bucks. He has offered remarkable leadership to our work in education and church schools over more than a decade. Alan has been a friend and advocate for survivors of abuse and a strong ally and supporter of the LGBTQIA+ community for many years.
“Alan had recently begun a well-earned sabbatical and was planning to use the time to plan and prepare for retirement in the next year. Alan loved God and loved God’s church with a rare passion. He was a bishop who prioritised the parishes and clergy in his care above everything else and served the people of Buckinghamshire with devotion over a long and demanding ministry.
“I will miss him as a friend and colleague. The Church has lost a wise, pastoral and prophetic bishop.”
There is more on the Oxford diocesan website.
23 CommentsSarah Wilkinson’s report into the Church of England’s Independent Safeguarding Board (ISB) was published in December. A debate on Safeguarding Independence (GS 2336) is scheduled to take place on Saturday 24 February at General Synod.
In advance of this debate six short documentary-style films (“The Wilkinson Files”) which highlight the key findings of Dr Wilkinson’s Report are being released by two Synod members. They explain these findings while displaying their precise location within the report. Each film is between 8 and about 15 minutes in duration.
The films are being released daily. So far two are available, but links are available for all six.
The films are presented by Martin Sewell and Clive Billenness, both Members of the House of Laity of the General Synod and both very active in matters relating to Safeguarding. Martin is a retired solicitor specialising in Child Protection. Clive is a Certified Auditor who is still in pracce and is also an elected member of the Audit Commiee of the Archbishops’ Council.
Clive said “When the Wilkinson Report is considered at the forthcoming meeting of the General Synod, speakers will probably only have 2 or 3 minutes each to speak about it. The Report itself reflects the legal background of its author and is packed with painstaking detail. We wanted to help Synod members to be as fully-informed as possible before Synod considers this. We have approached this like a forensic examinaon and have only included in the films any information contained in Dr Wilkinson’s Report, information of which she was aware or information in the Public Domain at the time she wrote her report.
“We have not invited anyone else to comment in our films or to appear on them in the interests of strict imparality. We leave it instead to our viewers to draw their own conclusions about how these sad events came to pass and how we can avoid a repetition. Dr Wilkinson’s report makes it clear that some fundamental changes are needed to the way the Church of England and the Archbishops’ Council conducts itself when dealing with Safeguarding.”
The films detail how the ISB was created, how it struggled to achieve the proper independence which abuse survivors and others expected, how it was closed down, followed by an detailed examinaon of the failures in governance which Dr Wilkinson highlights, a summary of the voices of the survivors who spoke to her and, finally, a short analysis of the “Magic Moments” where serious mistakes occurred which led to the failure and closure of the ISB.
18 Comments