The eyes of the nation are on Westminster, sadly not because General Synod begins the February Group of Sessions in Church House just the other side of the road from Parliament, but because of what is going on amongst our elected representatives. Unlike across the road, there is no way in which you can slip easily from one house to another in Synod – it takes a long time to move from the House of Laity to the House of Bishops and wearing a purple shirt just wouldn’t achieve it. And in many ways we all sit as independents, there are no formal ‘parties’ but there is a collection of groupings, some more formal than others. They can of course be very influential – we’ve seen that at times and I suspect will continue to do so.
Church and State
But don’t expect that Synod will be a ‘Brexit-free’ zone. The Presidents of the Synod, who are the two Archbishops, added an extra item to be debated into the agenda after the draft of it was published. This Synod will close on Saturday with a debate on ‘The State of the Nation’. That will be our opportunity to say clearly (I hope) to the people of England (The Church of England deals with England) and to the Government and Parliament as well as the Prime Minister (a committed and regular member of the CofE) just what we are feeling at this moment, out there, in the parishes, at the grass roots, where people are in danger of losing their jobs, and where communities are fractured and unsettled. The CofE is in every part of this country and its clergy, mostly, live where we minister. We know what it is like. There’s are 12600 parishes in the Church of England and 533 parliamentary constituencies in. England! So we have a good feel for things. Inevitably we will be told to keep our nose out of politics and to stick to God, but as we know God is not contained by the church and the disciples were forced out by the Holy Spirit from the closed room into the rich diversity and challenge of the world.
So it promises to be an interesting Synod. There is a strong theme – often the theme is accidental but this time it is deliberate – evangelism. So we will be debating that area of our life as it affects various groups, especially young people, and various situations and especially our estates. It is in both of those areas of national life that the ‘State of the Nation’ really hits home. It is the young who will be denied the benefits of European integration and all that that will mean; it is on the estates that the inevitable deprivation from a downturn of the economy will be felt with consequent cuts to public services. How do we speak Good News into both of these situations? That is a real and important question at this time.
There are the largest number of Questions tabled since 2003 – 120 of them! At least 33 questions are around the response of the church to the needs of members of the transgender community. That has become a huge issue that we need to deal well with and this number of questions shows just how important the needs of our transitioning sisters and brothers are.
There will be an update on the work of the group looking at the more wider issues of sexuality. It is called ‘Living in Love and Faith’ and it will be good to hear where we are. Bolting horses come to mind really!
It will be interesting to see whether issues around Lambeth 2020 are raised. I saw on Twitter the beginnings of anger being expressed at the exclusion of the spouses of bishops who are married to a same-sex partner. This affects only a few bishops but the question has to be, why? All other spouses are invited and unlike in previous Lambeth Conferences will not have separate meetings. I think I could guess what the official answer to why these particular people are not welcome would be, but is that good enough?
There is the resumption of a debate on the environment and there’s a lot of legislation – but there has to be, we are a legislative body after all. But it is to the debates on evangelism that I am looking for inspiration and energy. Let’s hope we find it!
Lord of the church, bless our Synod and inspire us to witness to your love in the world. Amen.
Andrew Nunn's reflections from General Synod 
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