On the Changing Attitude Facebook page, a recent post has pointed to a Guardian article about the guidance given to Synod members in their forthcoming Shared Conversations. Comments on this have revealed quite a sharp disagreement between those who are feeling optimistic about change coming in the church, and those who suspect the whole exercise …
Category: Church of England
Shared Conversations come to an end
Apart from the attenuated version which General Synod members are going to be put through in July, the Shared Conversations are over. This £300K exercise has brought together groups of dioceses and their representatives for three-day residential meetings to allow people from all sides of the church to talk, and more importantly to listen to …
Shared Conversations – Talking in Circles
Getting together with fifty or so other people, only a few of whom you already know, to talk about sex and religion for three days is, frankly, not something that any sane person would really want to do. We did it because the Church of England has decided the way forward over the issue of …
Culture Wars and Christmas
I leaf through the blogs and websites most days, and I today I notice how women bishops and "gay marriage" are still stirring comment. I don't think there is going to be a ceasefire over Christmas. After what has been a dreadful year for the Church of England, with the census telling us of a …
Linkages
Lurking behind some of the commentary following Tuesday's rejection of the Measure allowing women to become bishops is a piece of linkage that needs examining. Some of the resistance to women in the episcopate was coloured (to put it no more strongly than that) by a fear that admitting that the people who hold up …
Respect
I hear a good deal from thse who hold the minority position over women bishops about the need to respect the views and positions of their side as we go forward. Respect? I respect your right to hold the views you do. I respect your right to be part of the Church of England just …
From The Quire 