The Synod

The Church of England Synod has voted to reject the compromise proposal of Canterbury and York, to allow dissenting parishes to be overseen by a man bishop if they refuse to accept the authority of a woman bishop. Quite right too. The two Archbishops were grievously in error to propose it. Those who think God is a man who only deals through men are as far from the Truth as those of past times who believed that Copernicus and Galileo were blasphemers and their science heresy.

Across the spectrum of religious belief there are churches and sects which anchor their faith at a fixed point of the evolution of human understanding and hold fast to it even after enlightenment shows the nostrum, though observed with integrity, to be false, harmful, unfair, nonsense or a combination of  all of these things.

The Church of England is not one of those. It advances its interpretation of God’s Truth as society evolves to enshrine fairer, more equal and more inclusive values through the progression of humankind and wiser understanding. Those who gain comfort from a flat earth view of life and faith can find it in the welcoming arms of Rome. They should go there now. The debate should end.

The Church of England must remember that it is a component of the Constitution of a liberal, progressive and inclusive country in which the practice, outside the church, of discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender is against the law. The Church of England believes it is also against the Law of God.