Church Times: Synod wrestles with an England that no longer understands

11 February, 2011
by Ed Thornton

THE General Synod agonised over the Church of England’s relationship with English society when it met at Church House, Westminster, this week.

In his presidential address on Tuesday afternoon, the Archbishop of York, Dr Sentamu, said that the C of E faced many criticisms from secular­ists, some of whom wanted to remove particular responsibilities from the national Church.

Referring to Dame Mary Warnock, who recently argued that faith had no part to play in moral discourse, Dr Sentamu said: “From where she stands, religion and morality must be prised apart.” This, he said, was “false prophesy, and potentially fatal to our social fabric”.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Synod debated a vision document for the next five years of the Church’s life, which suggested the need to counter the marginalisation of Christianity. A lay member, Sarah Finch, urged the Synod to debate freedom of con­science. It was “not safe to be an openly Christian person” in the UK, she said, but “most of the Church of England has been silent.” the rest