Synod to lament Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: where’s the condemnation?
by Archbishop Cranmer:
There is a motion before the General Synod of the Church of England, proposed by the Bishop of Leeds, the Rt Rev’d Nick Baines, calling on Synod to “lament Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine”:
[…] This isn’t quite sufficiently robust for Fr. Marcus Walker of St Bartholomew’s in the Diocese of London, so he took to Twitter to demand a bit of ‘beefing up’ of the motion: “Anyone else at Synod think this motion on Ukraine isn’t good enough?” he roused. “We should be *condemning* not lamenting; we shouldn’t be telling others what to pray, but calling our own faithful to pray – and for Ukraine’s victory at that! We should recognise the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.”
He paused, and added: “Also, what is it with the Church of England and the word “lament”? It’s gone from never used to jargon in about two years. It’s used about Ukraine; in official reports; by bishops trying to pretend like they sympathise with churches they’ve chosen to close. But what does it mean?”
Times Diary Editor Patrick Kidd explained: “We only [use] such strong language as condemn about things that happened 200 years ago. See also ‘repent’.” Which was a little caustic, but not unreasonable when the Church of England is robust and unequivocal in its condemnation of the long-deceased who are tangentially smeared with a whiff of slavery, even to the point of tearing down their ancient funeral monuments, while a manifest and present evil is being poured upon the living in Ukraine, and the best the church can do is ‘lament’.
So it’s a fair question posed by Fr. Marcus.
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