Synod observer - day 2

Today the Synod did two things it doesn't usually do: it met in private with no press, cameras, or members of the public present; and it met in series of small groups of around twenty bishops, clergy, & laity guided by a team of facilitators.

It was a way of finding a new approach to deal with the issue of women bishops which comes to a formal debate on the floor of the chamber on Monday.

You may wonder why we are making such heavy weather of this issue.

In part it is because of the cumbersome legislative procedures of synod itself, and it is in part because we trying to square a circle.

The conundrum is this: how can we have women bishops (which the majority of synod wants), and how can these women have a fully recognised episcopal ministry, whilst making provision for those people (about a third of the church) who can't't accept a women bishop's ministry on grounds of conscience.

In one sense it is how a majority can respect the rights of a minority without steamrolling over them or excluding them from the church.

Our three facilitated discussion sesions today in 24 groups, scattered among the seminar rooms of the university, was designed to help us listen to each other and find a way forward. We are not there yet  but all sides seemed to feel that today we had got off to a good start.

After tea at 3.30pm we then gathered in the Central Hall, still in private session, for another synodical first; an hour long session of improvised drama, where individual members were invited to substitute themselves for the actors in a playlet set on day 3,567 of the Big Brother house where the inmates representing the various streams of the Church of England, overseen by Bishop Fred and the all-seeing BB himself (approprately in the circumstances, Big Brother was actually Big Sister), were given the task of solving the women bishops problem in three minutes.

It relaxed us and got us laughing but perhaps it went on just a little too long. Next up the facilators reported back in today's discussions and your blogger left a sweltering Central Hall for a cooling walk by the lake.

I wasn't slacking completely because during the evening dinner break I went to a scintillating fringe meeting by the Fresh Expressions team, looking at the remarkable growth that is taking place all over the country of new expressions of church.

By that time it was 8.30pm and it was time for the final debate of the day on the Quinquenniel goals. It sounds boring but these are three priorities we have set ourselves for the five year term of this Synod: making disciples, transforming ministry and serving the common good.

John Dunnett, chair of EGGS and General Director of the Church Pastoral Aid Society and, in my opinion, an all-round good-egg, had tabled a motion calling on the bishops to devote 'a substantial amount of time over the next few years to considering a strategy for the re-evangelisation of England.

Gloriously it passed.

Getting called to speak at GS is never easy but a kind chair called me in this debate and I said to synod members 'come with me a mile to the east of Tower Bridge to the parish of St James, Bermonsey.' I told them of our painting, the Ascension of our Saviour, and the motto attached 'lo, I am with you alway.;'

That promise, linked to the command in Matthew 28 to make disciples of all nations, speaks to me, I said, that the business of evangelism, of making disciples, is of first importance.That's why I supported John's motion, I said,  and its warm encouragement to our bishops to give a strong lead in evangelism.

We are the Church of England and we need to take the Gospel to England, I concluded.

The Archbishop dismissed us with prayer at 10pm, the end of a long and sweltering day, that ended on the happy note that that the Church has publically recommitted itself to its core task of taking the Gospel to the nation. Hallelelujah.