by Sarah Finch, Christian Today
It was all arranged. The General Synod office had allocated a time for a fringe meeting, being organised by Rebecca Hunt, a lay member for Portsmouth diocese, a barrister, and centre manager of Christian Legal Centre.
The original title for the meeting was ‘People Change: sexual identity transformation’, but it was changed to ‘Journeys of Identity: Faith, Sexuality and Personal Experience’ at the behest of York University. Also arranged was a display in the Exhibition Centre, on the same subject. The purpose of both fringe and display was to communicate the stories of people who had found their identity in Christ Jesus and had left a gay lifestyle. They were being transformed by the Holy Spirit to experience change in their self-identification, desires and behaviours.
The prospect of this fringe meeting and display caused 82 members of General Synod (including seven archdeacons) to write to the two Archbishops, complaining and raising the matter of safeguarding; and the Archbishops (who have the right to refuse space for a fringe meeting or display in certain circumstances) in turn to write to Rebecca Hunt. Following her reply to them, the Archbishops agreed that the fringe meeting could proceed, since it was to be held in a private room. However, they tried to pressurise Rebecca into agreeing to state, in writing, that ‘conversion practices’ would not be carried out at the meeting.
In the end, the meeting did proceed, at 7.30 am on Monday morning. A university security man was at the entrance to the building, checking that all those entering had a Synod pass – there were protesters outside – and, apart from protesters banging on the windows for about thirty seconds, the meeting went as planned, with about forty people attending. The speakers were Dr Mike Davidson, of Core Issues Trust, and Matthew Grech from Malta, who was accompanied by his fiancée. They both answered questions, and their accounts of how God had changed their lives were inspirational.
But the Archbishops refused permission for the display in the Exhibition Centre, giving various reasons: that the “publicly visible statement of a particular position – i.e. that people can change – would be seen as in conflict with what the General Synod has previously decided”. This was a reference to a General Synod debate in 2017 in which the motion claimed that so-called ‘conversion therapy’ was “potentially harmful”.