IN HIS presidential address, the Archbishop of York referred to a letter sent to faith leaders by the brand new Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer. “It is obvious that he sees and desires to know more concerning the impact people of religion have on communities today.
“Let’s be clear, we all know that politicians of all parties admire and covet the values that underpin our faith . . . that it’s our instinct to place the needs of others before our own.
“But that is where we may should be a bit more daring. We have to say that these values that we hold dear, these values that shape our life and witness, they don’t exist in a vacuum. They come from and are shaped by beliefs and practices; what God has done for us in Jesus Christ, and what we do in response: the day by day reading of scripture, the lifetime of prayer and worship, the iron rations of the sacramental life. Then these values then turn into real and turn into the lived outworking of a Christian life.”
Before starting his address, the primary item of business, Archbishop Cottrell said that he had made a mistake, last 12 months, when he had told the Synod that the choice by the Archbishops’ Council to disband the Independent Safeguarding Board (ISB) and sack its members had been “unanimous” (News, 14 July 2023).
“It has come to my attention that once I spoke within the ISB debate on the July Synod in 2023 I mistakenly said that the choice by the Archbishops’ Council to terminate the contracts of the 2 remaining members of the ISB was unanimous,” he said.
Dr Sarah Wilkinson’s report on the demise of the ISB, which was published in December (News, 15 December 2023), recorded that the Council had voted by 11 to 4 to terminate the contracts of Dame Jasvinder Sanghera and Steve Reeves the subsequent day, 4 members abstaining.
Archbishop Cottrell told the Synod: “I spoke incorrectly, and, because it’s been identified to me, I desired to take this chance to apologise and to place the record straight.”
