What happened at General Synod?

Feb 27, 2024 by

from Anglican Futures:

Living in Love and Faith Feb 24:

This blog summarises the Living in Love and Faith debate at General Synod on Feb 26th, 2024. The debate is due to continue on Tuesday Feb  27th and this blog will be updated accordingly.

Today was the fourth day of this session of General Synod – and Bishop Martyn Snow, the new lead bishop on Living in Love and Faith, proposed a ‘re-setting’ of the Living in Love and Faith process. He had set out his approach in a Paper – Livin gin Love, Faith and Reconciliation (GS 2346), which Anglican Futures discussed last week.

The original motion before Synod was:

‘That this Synod welcome the further work carried out on Living in Love and Faith and the focus on reconciliation and bridge building; and ask that the proposal for a set of commitments through which the whole Church can continue to pursue the implementation of the motions previously passed by Synod on Living in Love and Faith, be brought back to Synod as soon as possible.’

In his opening speech, Bishop Martyn made three main points:

  1. An apology to the LGTBQI+ community and others who are concerned that his ‘reconciliaton’ proposal was a sign he was “rowing back” : “This is a very personal apology, because I know that many of you were hoping for concrete proposals for implementing the previous decisions of Synod on LLF. I could give a list of excuses for why we are not yet able to do that, but instead I offer a simple heartfelt apology. It’s not for lack of trying, and I want to add that I am determined to do everything possible to ensure that by July’s Synod we do have concrete decisions.”

  2. That whether or not Synod voted on the motion, “The work goes on. Both the work of implementing the decisions already taken and the work of reconciliation – finding a way forward that most, if not all, can agree.”

  3. That reconciliation is, “at the heart of the gospel and of Anglicanism… which held the extremes together.” He explained he had “come to the personal conclusion that the missionary imperative is less about do we, or don’t we, disagree with same-sex marriage – that question alone is not going to determine whether the Church grows or shrinks over the years. The missionary imperative for this day and age is reconciliation.”

Bishop Martyn went as far as to say, that his very personal appeal to Synod was, “Be reconciled to God, and show this by being reconciled to one another.”

Read here

A quick update:

Yesterday evening General Synod began their debate on GS2346 – Living in Love, Faith and Reconciliation.  As you know – Anglican Futures set out many reasons why this paper was not a reset but a continuation of position which drives out the orthodox in a recent blog.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has suggested a new way forward – “Variable geometry of unity and unvariable commitment ot love in Christ” – which we have sought to unpack here.

However, yesterday things moved on again.

Ed Shaw, the Co-Chair of the Church of England’s Evangelical Council, moved an amendment, simply asking that Synod acknowledged the existence of those who cannot “agree to disagree”,  both in Synod and in the Church of England.

The amendment failed.

What the consequences of this are for conservatives is not yet clear – but the Bishop of Leicester said he could not support the amendment because he “feared that enshrining this in the motion is rather a counsel of despair, of saying there aren’t any new and imaginative ways for us.”

It is, however, hard to see how a settlement can be found, which acknowledges the depth of the differences in theological perspective found in the  CofE now that this amendment has failed to pass.

We have sought to summarise the debate so far on our blog – and will attempt to keep that updated as today’s events unfold.

You can watch the debate so far on Youtube – starting at about 3:55:00 – and follow the livestream here – the debate is likely to resume at about 9.15am.

For encouragement Rev Mark Smith outlines the conservative position very clearly.

Related Posts

Tags

Share This

Help Anglican Mainstream uncover the truth!!!