by Tony Rucinski, Coalition for Marriage
I recently sat down with Rev Dr Ian Paul – theologian, General Synod member, and former member of the Archbishops’ Council – to discuss what happened at the Church of England’s February Synod. Please watch the full conversation here.
Nine years and at least £1.6 million (excluding diocesan costs): that is what the Church of England spent on Living in Love and Faith, the programme launched in 2017 to explore whether the Church should bless same-sex unions. February’s General Synod voted 252 to 132 to bring it to an end. The doctrine of marriage has not changed by a single word.
Ian describes the process as, a “money-wasting debate which I think hasn’t really got us anywhere”. And while the Church was consumed by this, it issued no formal statement on fatherlessness, took no policy position on falling marriage rates, and when its own Love Matters report finally addressed family life in 2023, it declined to distinguish between married and cohabiting families in child outcomes.
The Church – established by law to speak for the nation on marriage – spent nine years arguing about its own teaching instead of defending marriage in public life.