The day’s business is in Order Paper Six
Official press releases
General Synod approves Channel Islands legislation
Legal aid an ‘essential service’ that should be preserved for the ‘benefit of the nation’, Synod votes
Archbishop of Canterbury pays tribute to the Archbishop of York
Press reports
Church Times
Synod says yes to Channel Islands transfer
Members’ blogs
Andrew Nunn The last chapter
Stephen Lynas A hard day’s night
For a better understanding of what has happened over the Channel Islands, please read Stephen Lynas’ blog piece “Back to the Islands”. The Bishop of Winchester has spoken openly for the first time in six years and what he says deserves to be read.
I have some sympathy for the Bishop of Winchester. Having commissioned a report to investigate what a safeguarding issue left by his predecessor, the Bishop of Winchester then ended up with the report landing on his desk. What should he do? If he suppressed the report and it did not see publication, and it later emerged that such a report had been commissioned and existed, how would safeguarding in Winchester appear? On the other hand if the report were to be published, it was clear that action would need to be taken. Of course the fall-out was quite divisive with… Read more »
Those of us disappointed by this decision must now gracefully retire from the scene.
I believe an Order of Her Majesty in Council is necessary. It will involve some interesting legal drafting to reverse what was stated in the 1569 Order in Council: “… touching the separation for ever of those Islands from the Diocese of Coutances, and to be perpetually united to the Diocese of Winchester, shall not, from henceforth, be brought into any question … ”. No mention of Salisbury, but doubtless explicable that Queen Elizabeth I would not have had any truck with Papal bulls!
On that wording wasn’t the report unlawful and therefore any decisions taken in reliance of the report void?
‘There aren’t a lot of bishops who are so well known outside the church’ says Welby about Sentamu. He’s not kidding is he? But if you insist on appointing prefects instead of prophets, you reap the harvest you sow. Grandstanding about how the CNC doesn’t allow for greater diversity, while tightly controlling who gets on to the preferment list, is pure hypocrisy, whether we are talking about ethnicity, theological complexion or whether someone is a Cranmer Hall alumna/us from the early 1990s.
‘One member of Synod in one of the debates said that we were wrong to be spending time on such issues because one thing only mattered and that was that people believe the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ otherwise they will burn in hell’. Unbelievable.
Unfortunately that is a statement typical of a large section of today’s CofE.
It is a statement representative of a small but worrying section….
So at their mutual last Synod, on the last day thereof, with traditional farewell tributes, the Dean of the Arches spoke about legal services for the poor and the Archbishop of York was on the far side of the world. Interesting.
Surely, Jeremy, you’re not suggesting that the Church of England’s leadership is in a state of dysfunction?
It would be laughable if it wasn’t true.