General Synod

vegan organic.net they did a very interesting article i've got to say i've not heard of them before i'm interested in them now this was something that happened in july what happened in july anthony you're alluding to this thing you've not told us anything well The Church of England, we've been having a go at farmers, let's have a go at the church now.

The Church of England's General Synod, that sounds like a Monty Python character, sorry.

They voted against adopting a measurable target to protect and rewild 30% of its land by 2030.

They did that on July the 14th.

More than 190 countries have supported this to restore at least 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030.

This target is widely regarded as a minimum level of action needed to halt and reverse biodiversity decline.

Like I say, it has been rejected by General Synod.

I can't say that without laughing.

Very young, very fragile, three years old, but led by one or two of these pioneer ministers.

So there's lots to actually celebrate but as opposed to just listening to me we put together this video which we showed at General Synod which is kind of when all the Church of Ireland come together to just show what's happened in the last three years and we got someone called Darren to put this video but a big shout out to Joe Kelly from Bring Hope.

Some of his footage is in this because Joe has done lots of filming to help tell the stories in Pioneer Ministry as well.

So I'd love to just watch this and then just tell another one or two stories about exactly some lives that have been changed on the back of Pioneer Ministries.

Because pioneer ministry, one of the main reasons why it kicked off is that people saw what was happening in Holy Trinity.

That they saw there was something new started alongside something existing.

And that was the impetus and the springboard for bishops and general synod and others to begin to say, well, maybe we could do this in other places.

So I say it to encourage you that actually there is something extending beyond these walls across the island.

Welcome to this service of morning prayer.

Today, on this first Sunday of September, we celebrate for the first time the Feast of Creation in Christ, a new festival approved at the July meeting of the General Synod.

O Lord, open our lips, and our mouths shall proclaim your praise.

Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord.

And...

And through that, I was then asked, what you're doing as a disability advisor in this diocese, have you ever thought about doing that as a member of General Synod? Well, that now becomes the parliament of the whole church.

And so I put myself forward for General Synod and was voted on.

And then...

I became very involved in the whole understanding of disability at the National Church, where it was pretty much non-existent.

And so you were there, you had a voice, and you were representing...

The Southwark Diocese.

You were representing the Southwark Diocese, but you were also representing your own experience and those wider connections around disability, which was not on the radar of the General Synod at all.

You know, we need to read them in order to realise what a problem they have become.

Somebody just mentioned the recent vote in General Synod and As I heard you, I just thought how difficult it was for me to get out of bed the following morning to know that my Archbishop and several of my friends who are bishops voted not to say that me and my relationship of nearly 25 years are welcome.

And the reason that I see some goodness in that discomfort is that I think it has made me and many clergy that I know and laity understand what it then is like for other groups to have been overlooked, shamed and so on, all the things you mentioned.

If you reflect on what it's doing to you, it's not too big a step to see what similar things are doing to other people.

We look toward the day when we shall live free in our land, together with all the inhabitants of the earth, in true peace and reconciliation, founded upon justice and equality for all God's creation, where mercy and truth meet, and righteousness and peace kiss each other.

So the document Kairos Palestine II is actually in the news lately because in July of this year, the Church of England General Synod voted to, quote unquote, hear and engage with the Kairos Palestine documents, including Kairos Palestine II, expressing solidarity with Palestinian Christians amid intense public debate and criticism from Jewish leaders.

So the motion passed in July.

It was originally a proposal to receive the documents and the ultimate decision was to hear them as lived experiences.

An Anglican archbishop says it was a miracle that 13 church members were left uninjured after their boat capsized in Tonga waters.

Delegates from across New Zealand and the Pacific had been in Nuku'alofa for their General Synod, and a group had set off to go whale watching.

Sources say the passengers were in the water for nearly half an hour before being rescued amidst rough weather and strong winds.

Archbishop Justin Duckworth says they had numerous blessings.

Good.

So this is the liturgy that prevails, at least in East Coast Lutheranism, for how long? Decades? A century? The common service is put together by the General Council, the United Synod, the South, and the General Synod

in

the 1880s.

Good morning.

I'm this week at General Synod down at Albert Park in the Pullman Hotel.

So I'm just nicking off occasionally to come up to do things like preach.

And it's a great pleasure to be here, let me tell you.