Wednesday 11th February

An early start for me today as I have a committee meeting for the Open Synod Group at 8am. Leaving the hotel at 7.30am (supposedly in good time) I meet someone who wants to talk about my speech yesterday – I’ve been surprised at the amount of interest it has caused! Just make the meeting! Open Synod Group is precisely what it says – a group that tries to operate outside some of the ‘party’ lines in Synod. We hold an open meeting in each group of sessions always trying to focus on an issue of interest to Syod members and usually getting people to speak from opposing points of view about he issue. Our meeting on the Monday of this week was addressed by one of the Provencial Episcopal Visitors – the Bishop of Beverley. That was in preparation for this morning’s debate.

The morning began with a Eucharist celebrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury who gave an excellent homily about Aargh! or Aha! Moments – the moments that I have been known to call ‘Yes’ moments. Archbishop Rowan has been on excellent form this group of sessions speaking in a way that is encouraging all sides in the debates on women and the covenant to understand that we remain part of the Church whether we stay or go! This morning’s debate began with speeches from Christina Rees and the Bishop of Beverley. Both were, in their own way, graceful but the Bishop of Beverley seemed to have no room for compromise at all. The Bishop of Manchester in his opening speech had made clear that at the Revision stage ‘all’ the suggestions made in the debate last July could be revisited. Interestingly enough Miranda Threlfall Holmes and Christina both made clear that they accepted the work of the Holy Spirit in the decision of Synod that a single clause measure was not appropriate – so I guess that option will not be revisited at the revision stage – possibly the only one that won’t!! Causing most anxiety is the proposed revision of the Canons and Canon A4 in particular. I share this concern believing it to be inappropriate to revise foundational Canons of the Church in the interests of one very particular historical occasion and one very specific group.

This debate took the entire morning but it was, to be honest, pretty well the mixture as before – more references to the Elizabethan settlement (but you might expect that – and a wonderful moment when Kevin Carey reminded us that we were being asked by one group to undo the Reformation and by another to undo the Elizabethan Settlement and that this ‘was too big an ask!’ Perhaps the most surprising speech came fromt eh Bishop of Norwich – who felt that the provisions were so damaging to the Episcopacy that the Measure should not be committed to Revision – that the minority cannot dictate and that ‘a Code of Practice will not do’ is not a theological point! Towards the end of the debate the Archbishop of York reminded us that whatever is done God blesses all! Although nthat was not quite the end of the debate it’s probably the best place to leave it.
And so to lunch – today with the Ministry Division to whom we could ask questions after a short presentation but a dash to Business Committee meant that I missed the questions!

The afternoon began with a Private Members Motion from Martin Dales ont eh subject of the water rate being charged on all public buildings including charities; churches, scout and guide and sports facilities are all targets and no differentiation is being required between businesses and charities. Except of course that businesses will be able to claim their charges against VAT! Synod ahd no difficulty in sending a clear message to government and OFWAT about their opinion!! This issue is a very good example of the use of PMM’s – Martin Dales raised a concern in the questions to the Business committee last July – was advised that a PMM was the fastest way of getting action – quickly reached more than the required number of signatures for his motion during the York synod and the debate is on the agenda in February!
This PMM was followed by a more controversial one, that of Mr Paul Eddy on the Uniqueness of Christ in multi faith Britain. It occurs to me that there are links between this and the ‘almost wrecked’ Diocesan Synod motion from Chester yesterday. Both motions indicate that Christians feel that they are under threat in multi faith society. One group wishes to have the Church reclaim its place in public life and would like the Bishop’s to do this for them – another wishes to have clear and unequivocal statements, originating in the House of Bishops, about the ‘uniqueness of Christ’ and some good patterns of mission. Parts of the debate were moving – others rolled out the kind of language that I find needs a great deal of unpacking even in well educated South Oxfordshire! Fortunately the link with the Report Presence and Engagement to be debated tomorrow was made and underlined more than once.

By this time we were all pretty exhausted but there was one more Diocesan Synod motion to go. At the beginning of this group of sessions there was some comment about the number of these we had to deal with. By the end of this harrowing debate no-one could have questioned the value of bringing these kinds of issues before us. The motion was brought jointly by the Dioceses of Winchester and Newcastle to mark the centenary of Josephine Butler – it’s intention to draw attention to all kinds of Human trafficking and its timing to remind us particularly of the issues that may arise in connection with the Olympic games. Our attention was drawn to appalling statistics – but also to the work that Churches and groups of churches can do – a good example from Ealing being pressure put on a local newspaper who, whilst running news stories about the horrors of trafficking and sex shops were (unwittingly) advertising the same in their classifieds.
This may have been one of the most disturbing couple of hours I’ve spent in Synod – it was also one of the most educative and inspiring.