This post will be updated as the meeting proceeds.
The Church of England’s General Synod is meeting this week. The timetable is here, the agenda is here and the papers are here.
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 X/Twitter account.
Official list of General Synod members (updated February 2025)
[This includes bishops attending (without voting rights) in dioceses with vacancies for their diocesan bishop.]
Order papers
Notice papers
Official press releases
X/Twitter is a total cesspit, run by a man who is currently dismantling human rights in the USA. The Church of England should not be using it.
There are trolls on Twitter, but also good, honest, and kind people of integrity discussing important issues. The C of E officially, and Christians individually, are right to continue using it and engaging with discussions there. We are called to be salt in a corrupt world, and salt isn’t effective where it isn’t used.
…Or when salt gets contaminated, and that’s always a danger with social media, especially where there is no fact checking.
That’s arguable but the official comms account for Synod should still be elsewhere. It’s unreasonable to expect any trans or intersex Christian to use X any longer as it is truly dreadful for anyone with a trans history or trans loved ones with a high chance of abusive pile one. So the main comms account should be elsewhere even if some individuals choose to remain.
That’s the “I buy Playboy for the essays” argument recast. Musk is an appalling man. X/Twitter directly benefits him. Where would you draw the line: “we get good engagement on Stormfront?”
I won’t go near X. I judge organisations which continue to use it, because they are presumably tolerant of intolerance by using a platform which openly boasts of its tolerance of hate speech.
A member of the national comms team recently did some training for us. To be fair, they were very good at what they did for us but they recommended X uncritically and would not be drawn into conversation about the morality of X. They seemed not to know that most bishops and most dioceses have abandoned X on moral grounds.
At very least should have warned of Trolls & bots on X. Otherwise I fear that the naive would think it quite normal that numerous ladies whose X profile showed them in states of undress suddenly had a sincere interest in CofE matters
Plus gentlemen
Just for the record. The morality police at work on Twitter was why it was bought. It isn’t a matter of morality, but *whose morality* — as Alisdair MacIntyre trenchantly described in Whose Justice, Which Rationality. We are not living in the time of Kant.
By all means, find a blog that suits *your* morality. And let us know where it is to be found.
PS–I avoid them all, and have never used Twitter or X or even Y.
Been watching the debate on makin. Great speeches by helen king and martin sewell and many others.
It was good. Interesting that only two members of the clergy were called to speak. Three bishops, and 10 laity. Helen King and Martin Sewell were good. Julie Conalty (Bishop of Birkenhead) read out some moving victim statements. Simon Friend (Exeter) at the end on the need for tangible repentance (and what would that look like?). But will anything happen? The Redress Scheme is being dragged out. Option 4 on (radical?) safeguarding reforms is the preferred one, but has real problems. It’s not quite a permacrisis, but is getting close.
The silence at the end of the Archbishop’s speech was deafening. I wonder if he realises how bad things are.