THE latest clergy discipline system, more break day for priests, and support for disabled children are among the many items on the agenda on the General Synod meeting next month.
While debates on Living in Love and Faith (News) and safeguarding (News) have dominated headlines, members gathering on the University of York on Friday 5 July even have a plethora of other topics to maintain them busy till the next Tuesday.
Among the laws to be discussed is the Clergy Conduct Measure, the disciplinary framework intended to switch the discredited Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM).
Now at its revision stage, the Clergy Conduct Measure has already been approved in principle by the Synod through its committee stage (News, 14 July). The committee reported that much of the feedback from Synod members could be implemented, not within the text of the measure but in its accompanying code of practice.
Among the legislative amendments agreed was handy over responsibility for handling complaints against an archbishop to the President of Tribunals relatively than the opposite archbishop.
Also, the assessors is not going to be organised regionally as envisaged earlier, but will likely be a smaller, more skilled, higher trained and paid national group, appointed by the Clergy Conduct Commission (relatively than bishops). A diocesan safeguarding officer, or member of the National Safeguarding Team (NST), can turn into party to a proceeding if it involves a toddler or vulnerable adult. And the code of practice is not going to be introduced until it has first been approved by the Synod.
Various diocesan-synod motions are also on the agenda, most notably one from Winchester, which calls for all office-holding clergy to be entitled to 36 hours of rest every week (including an uninterrupted 24-hour period).
The Winchester proposers suggest that this reform could be an appropriate response to the “ever-increasing pressures on clergy colleagues” and the rise in clergy burnout, with its associated negative impact on parishes and ministry.
They acknowledge that the present regulations for office holders already permit clerics to take greater than the minimum 24-hours’ rest stipulated in Common Tenure. But given how difficult many priests find it to take this break day, they hope that the motion will begin shifting culture.
An accompanying paper by the secretary-general, William Nye, argues that, as office-holders, clergy are already free to organise their time as they see fit, including taking as many days off per week as they deem appropriate (provided their duties on Sundays are still met). He also says that there’s a risk that, if passed, the motion might put pressure on clerics to condense the identical workload right into a shorter week, subsequently hampering their freedom to reply to “pastoral emergencies and mission opportunities”. A 36-hour entitlement to rest would also, sarcastically, be greater than that legally mandated for workers in wider society, he says, for whom the law stipulates 24 hours off per week minimum (although, in practice, most staff’ contracts give them two days off per week).
A big a part of Sunday afternoon will likely be spent debating a diocesan motion from Liverpool on the “human dignity of disabled children”. Moved by the Archdeacon of Knowsley and Sefton, the Ven. Pete Spiers, it calls on the Church to “challenge the common assumption that bringing a disabled child into the world is a tragedy to be avoided”. It also calls on the NHS and the Government to enhance support given to folks of youngsters with disabilities, and asks for moms who’re told that their unborn child is disabled to be given higher advice and “unbiased information”.
In a press conference held at Church House, Westminster, on Thursday, Archdeacon Spiers said that the motion was not about reducing the variety of abortions of disabled children, and that he backed a “woman’s right to decide on”.
He did, nonetheless, wish the Church to get up for the concept that it was not intrinsically bad if children with Down’s Syndrome, for instance, were brought into the world. He had been affected by Thalidomide within the womb, and was born with disabilities in consequence; he was grateful that it was in an era before ultrasound scans.
“I often wonder what would have happened if a alternative had been made available to my parents to terminate me or not,” he said. “I’m very glad they didn’t, and a lot of people would say the identical.”
Archdeacon Spiers hoped that the motion would spur churches to support families who were facing a similarly difficult situation, to supply “a variety of compassion, a variety of love, [and] no judgement”.
He did, nonetheless, say that there was an ongoing public debate, and in Parliament, about abortion within the UK, which currently allows for abortions as much as term for a toddler diagnosed with a serious disability. “Some people would say that’s unfair, unequal, and discriminatory,” Archdeacon Spiers said.
The Soul Survivor abuse scandal may also come under the microscope. The Revd Robert Thompson, from the diocese of London, is on account of move his private member’s motion on Sunday evening: that the Synod call on the Archbishops’ Council to commission an independent inquiry, led by a senior lawyer, into the affair.
Mike Pilavachi, the outstanding priest and pastor who founded and led the Soul Survivor youth festivals for nearly 30 years, faced allegations last yr of spiritual and emotional abuse (News, 6 April 2023). These were later substantiated, and an investigation by the NST was begun (News, 8 September)
New Wine has commissioned an external review of the case, led by Fiona Scolding KC (News, 1 March). Mr Thompson’s motion argues that the National Church should follow their lead, describing the interior investigation as neither “sufficient or right in principle”.
The Synod can be on account of discuss a call for a review of social-security provision. A diocesan synod motion from Sheffield, moved by the Archdeacon of Sheffield and Rotherham, the Ven. Malcolm Chamberlain, asks members to notice the increasing dependence on foodbanks in Britain, lots of that are church based.
The motion argues that this “reflects serious inadequacies within the social security system”, quoting the Trussell Trust, which warns that the UK must either accept foodbanks because the “latest normal”, or “work to create a more dignified, compassionate and humane society where everyone has enough money for essentials”.
An accompanying paper from Mr Nye refers to government statistics which show that 3.3 per cent of households had used foodbanks within the financial yr to April 2023, and that 7.2 million people were experiencing food insecurity. The Trussell Trust distributed 3.12 million food parcels through its network of mostly church-based foodbanks within the yr to March 2024: its highest ever annual figure (News, 17 May). Bishops had often spoken on the subject of poverty and the advantages system within the House of Lords, Mr Nye says. He highlights calls from the Archbishops’ Commission on Families and Households to reform the social security system.
Mr Nye concludes that there are “evident” failures which must be addressed, and cautiously endorses calls from anti-poverty charities that the speed of advantages must be tied to the associated fee of shopping for the essentials that every household requires (estimated at £120 per week for a person; £200 for a pair).
Among the opposite items on the agenda are: laws to reform how chancel repair liability affects the Church Commissioners; and a paper from the Bishop of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich, the Rt Revd Martin Seeley, exploring why so most of the constituent parts of the Church of England “deeply mistrust” one another, and the way this could be restored.
Major constitutional reforms to the structure and governance of the C of E will likely be discussed on Sunday, when the National Church Governance Measure has its first consideration. These reforms draw on several years of consultation and proposals, drawn up by the Governance Review Group, which have already debated by the Synod in previous sessions. These involve streamlining the National Church Institutions from seven to 4, and the creation of a latest NCI: the C of E National Services.
A final diocesan synod motion from London will call on the Archbishops’ Council to work ecumenically to ascertain a “national day of prayer and motion for the persecuted Church all over the world”.
An accompanying paper from Mr Nye states that, while the C of E is deeply engaged in work overseas to uphold the rights of persecuted Christians, its approach has tended to deal with essentially the most serious violations of freedom of faith and belief more broadly, relatively than prioritising Christians particularly.
He also says that there already exists an International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, which is marked on the primary Sunday in November by various charities, including Open Doors, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, and Release International.
“It could also be more helpful for us to actively support existing initiatives relatively than create something latest,” he concludes.
