TWO Archbishops’ Council members appointed
THE appointment of two recent Archbishops’ Council members was approved by the Synod on the Saturday afternoon: Peter Doyle and Julie Jones. Carl Hughes, who chairs the Finance Committee, paid tribute to the departing Maureen Cole. Her successor, Mr Doyle, had been identified by a competitive recruitment process and was to chair the Audit and Risk Committee.
In a brief debate, the Revd Dr Ian Paul (Southwell & Nottingham) praised the interim chair of that committee, Chris Gill. Robert Hammond (Chelmsford) was surprised that members weren’t being told where the brand new Council members worshipped. Mr Hughes said that this was not deliberate. Dr Ian Johnston (Portsmouth) said that appointing a member of the Council to chair its Audit and Risk Committee was “an example of poor governance”. Mr Hughes said that the committee’s job was to not audit the Council itself, and that Mr Gill was not a member of the Council.
Alison Coulter (Winchester), one other member of the Council, introduced Ms Jones, saying that the Council had been keen to enhance diversity. Adrian Greenwood (Southwark) praised the departing Matthew Frost for leading the 2017 laity report Setting God’s People Free. Nicola Denyer (Newcastle) asked in regards to the balance of representatives from the Province of York. Sarah Tupling (Deaf Anglicans Together) also asked about diversity: “Is it too white, is it lacking in neurodiversity, is it too hearing?” Penny Allen (Lichfield) praised Ms Jones’s work ethic. Nadine Daniel (Liverpool) suggested that the appointments process was skewed against the north.
Synod takes note of audit and risk report
THE General Synod took note of the Archbishops’ Council’s Audit and Risk Committee’s annual report on the Sunday afternoon. It had originally been listed as deemed business, but members had requested a debate. The former interim chair of the committee, Chris Gill (Lichfield), clarified some “potential misunderstandings”, apologising to 2 members who had recently left the committee, if his “robust approach” as chair had caused their departure. Membership needs to be restored by its next meeting in November, he reported.
Caroline Herbert (Norwich) welcomed the committee’s intention to extend the variety of independent members from two to a few, saying that this could help it to run easily and increase its diversity. Debbie Buggs (London) asked what guidance the committee had given to the Archbishops’ Council on risks with the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process, mentioned within the Council’s annual report. The Council, she said, quoting, was “increasingly concerned in regards to the impact on the lower pipeline of vocations . . . and that protracted deadlock is unambiguously a risk to the Council’s objectives, either through deferral of decision-making or of vocations”.
Canon Mark Bennet (Oxford) asked how the committee intended to transition to the brand new Church of England National Services body. John Mason (Chester) asked whether the ability to co-opt recent members could be created, to stop the committee from slipping below its quorum through resignations.
Responding, Mr Gill said that the committee would proceed to support the Council for so long as it existed. The committee was ensuring that the Council was considering potential risks of LLF.
Urban debate squeezed in, then adjourned
OWING to the swifter-than-expected passage of the Abuse Redress Measure, an item was delivered to the agenda to mark the fortieth anniversary of the report Faith within the City, which led to the formation of the Church Urban Fund. In his presentation, its chief executive, the Rt Revd Rob Wickham, said that the report had raised serious deficits in government policies. “Our shared work was prophetic, a wake-up call,” that challenged the rhetoric that there was “no such thing as society”, he said. The ministry initiatives that had ensued had modified lives.
Mark Sheard (Archbishops’ Council) spoke of stark disparities in health and life expectancy between poorer and wealthier people. “Poverty still blights the face of our nation. Injustice still rears its head.” He moved a motion celebrating the final result of the report and affirming “the worth and necessity of listening to people inside our congregations and in our wider communities who’re experiencing poverty, learning from these insights, and embedding these views and experiences within the forming of the body of Christ”. Then, for lack of time, the business was adjourned to February.
The Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Revd Philip North, objected: “What does the making of this debate contingency business, and now its shoddy adjournment, say in regards to the Church’s compassion” for the 30 per cent of youngsters within the country living under the poverty line, he asked.
Archbishop Chan: Third World War would destroy us
PREACHING in York Minster on the Sunday on the sung eucharist attended by Synod members, the Archbishop of Hong Kong, the Most Revd Andrew Chan, told the story of a two-year-old Chinese girl who was passed by 18 people after being hit by a truck. He said that the story illustrated “how indifferent and uncaring humanity can get”. Being a Good Samaritan meant “having the entire world as your neighbour”, he said, before drawing attention to the numerous conflicts world wide. “If these local wars keep escalating a lot that at some point they merge and change into World War Three, then we will probably be dooming ourselves — we’ll destroy ourselves, and there will probably be no one left to witness World War Four,” he warned.
Criticism after Palestine debate left off agenda
ABSENT from the agenda was a diocesan motion from Carlisle with regards to Palestine. In the Business Committee debate, the Archdeacon of West Cumbria, the Ven. Stewart Fyfe (Carlisle), quoted the Rector of St Andrew’s, Ramallah, Fr Fadi Diab, as saying that “when the General Synod claims it doesn’t have time to debate the motion, it’s effectively saying that Palestinians — and Palestinian Christians specifically — don’t matter.” “What will it take for this motion to be debated?” Archdeacon Fyfe asked.
The Bishop in Europe, Dr Robert Innes, said that, on the World Council of Churches, on which he represents the Church of England, “the talk on Palestine was crucial debate we had.” He was “barely disenchanted” that the Carlisle motion had not been tabled, and asked whether the Business Committee would find time to think about “this appalling international situation”.
In response, the Chair of the Business Committee, Robert Hammond (Chelmsford), said that he had heard the comments, and that the committee “understand the urgency” of the topic.
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