Members of the Church of England’s General Synod issued a statement expressing their dissatisfaction with the July Synod’s ‘Shared Conversations’ on human sexuality.
A group of 32 General Synod members expressed their ‘lack of confidence’ in the Church of England’s ‘Shared Conversations’ on sexuality, following a meeting in York between 8 and 12 July.
The statement
The statement read: ‘Since the beginning of the regional conversations people from all traditions in the church have bemoaned the lack of serious engagement with the Scriptures. Sadly, despite promises to correct this matter, these concerns remain at the end of the process. We hope that the Bishops will ensure that our varied experience does not outweigh the uniting power of a commitment to truth and holiness as described in God’s Word.
‘We, the undersigned members of the General Synod, wish to express our lack of confidence in the process of the Shared Conversations. Whatever their stated purposes, the outcome has not led to a greater confidence that the Church will be guided by the authoritative voice of the Scriptures, and its decisive shaping of traditional Anglican teaching, in any forthcoming discussions.’
'Listening agenda divisive'
Andrea Williams issued a separate statement after the Synod meeting in York, saying: ‘St Paul does not convene a Synod to discuss the merits of sexual immorality, greed, idolatry, slander, drunkenness in the church, he simply puts out the unrepentant and offending parties (1 Corinthians 5).
‘We therefore agree with the logic of those evangelical critics (some of whom boycotted the whole affair) who argued that the Shared Conversation process itself was an ill-conceived, pluralistic exercise that falsely placed LGBTI activism on a level playing field with the plain teaching of Scripture and the historic teaching of the Church which the bishops swore to uphold – as such the “listening” agenda itself was divisive, with the sole aim of softening opposition to revisionism and change.’
